Fantastic news: IAAF likely to remove men's 50k race walk from Olympics and World Champs

track and roll wrote:

The field events should be the long jump and the high jump. I want to see how high and how long a human can jump.

Maybe throw in shot put and javelin for throwing events. The ability to throw is important. Javelin is just cool.

Discus

Can't tell if that's a typo or a sneak-diss

I wonder why the 50 and not the 20.

Race walking is running's retarded cousin.

hcbh wrote:

I wonder why the 50 and not the 20.

Because the 50k doesn't have a female equivalent and they're trying to reduce gender disparities.

I do of course acknowledge the irony that the 800 also now has no female equivalent...

If I were in charge the full track program would be 100, 400, 1500, 5000, and marathon. Long jump and high jump. Javelin and shot put.

This would all be done in like five days maximum.

Everything else is redundant, waters down other events, or is flat out bizarre. Triple jump? Who the helll came up with that?

Devil Dog wrote:

Triple jump? Who the helll came up with that?

Probably by some long jumper who tripped during his jump.

Irony wrote:

Because the 50k doesn't have a female equivalent and they're trying to reduce gender disparities.

I do of course acknowledge the irony that the 800 also now has no female equivalent...

If that is their aim then they should just make track and field open competition so that completely eliminates gender disparities with hurdle height differences and weight throw differences etc. It would also solve the Semenya situation so people could stop moaning about it.

It would help if:

1) they actually were walking instead of awkwardly jogging.

2) They weren't doped beyond even sprinter event levels.

Herp a derp wrote:

The 100 is so short it's hardly worth watching. And the mile is just a white man nostalgia race, nothing interesting has happened in it since the 50's. We should just stop wasting our time and get rid of athletics!

The saving grace of the 100m is that it doesn't take too long. It's a nice idea for a race for those people who don't really run well and can't even complete a single full lap. It's like in swimming if they had a race across the pool.

HRE wrote:

heh huh heh huh wrote:

Funny thing is, these Olympic race walkers can walk faster than most of Letsrun users can run.

And that might explain a lot of the reaction. No one's forced to watch the walks.

It would help if:

1) they actually were walking instead of awkwardly jogging.

2) They weren't doped beyond even sprinter event levels.

Devil Dog wrote:

If I were in charge the full track program would be 100, 400, 1500, 5000, and marathon. Long jump and high jump. Javelin and shot put.

I would add the 200m hurdles and pole vault as individual events and eliminate the marathon from the Outdoor Track & Field program.

There would then be 10 individual events, and the decathlon would be changed to the "All-Around," and would consist of all 10 stand-alone events. Add the SMR and DMR as relays, contest all events separately as men's and women's, and that's the program for the Outdoor Track & Field World Championship.

Individual indoor events at World Indoors should be the 60m, 300m, 1000m, 3000m, 60m hurdles, 1500m steeple (no water jump, one barrier per straightaway), weight throw, triple jump, and pole vault (if there's some variation on the pole vault I would do that instead of the pole vault, too, in keeping with the "off events" theme). Don't contest an all-around indoors, but do a mixed 4 x 200m and 4 x 800m for the relays.

Separate from the Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field programs, marathon, half marathon, XC, half marathon race walk, and hammer throw (all of the "out-of-stadium" events) world championships should be held individually. Each of those should have an international circuit, independent of Track & Field, on which athletes must compete in order to qualify for their discipline's World Chmpionship. These circuits and championships would still be under the IAAF's auspices.

Leave ultra running and obstacle racing alone, and let them have their own governing body/championships. You can't be everything to everyone (and in that vein, I would even be fine letting the hammer and race walk go the way of the dodo, or at least cut them loose to fend for themselves, leaving only the "out-of-stadium" running events as the ones with their own, stand-alone championships--although that just might be the distance runner in me talking.)

africans slow at ultras wrote:

50K racewalk is unnecessary. The 50K ultra has purpose- encouraging marathoners to step up to an ultra distance. The faster Africans get beat by the Americans at 50K and 100K too.

That's because the Africans are so small and skinny their bodies can't hold enough glycogen to keep up in ultra events, even with fluid or food intake. But don't worry, if they decide to get serious the powers that be will allow them to use PEDs and make sure the results are front and center unlike the occasions those horrible White (or Asian) people win an event.

Yes, eliminating the 50K will make track so much more popular.

If they are getting rid of it because women do not compete in it, then I am ok with that. As Treacy says in one of the articles, it does not require a venue and does not impede the track program.

If the argument is that few countries are competitive then you make the same argument for each event at different times in history.

If Africans or black people anywhere were doing well in the 50k this wouldn't be happening. But since the medalists are mainly those pesky Asians and hated whites it's time to do away it. Down the line swimming will be axed as a sport of privilege for the same reasons and weightlifting will be cut because it will be claimed that certain people don't have "access" to prime training facilities.

Seriously, it would be great to see the Olympics get rid of equestrian events, rhythmic gymnastics, baseball, soccer, badminton, tennis, volleyball, cycling, golf, and synchronized swimming. These sports have no place in the quadrennial celebration.

Numbers Game wrote:

If Africans or black people anywhere were doing well in the 50k this wouldn't be happening. But since the medalists are mainly those pesky Asians and hated whites it's time to do away it. Down the line swimming will be axed as a sport of privilege for the same reasons and weightlifting will be cut because it will be claimed that certain people don't have "access" to prime training facilities.

Seriously, it would be great to see the Olympics get rid of equestrian events, rhythmic gymnastics, baseball, soccer, badminton, tennis, volleyball, cycling, golf, and synchronized swimming. These sports have no place in the quadrennial celebration.

There's some truth in your first paragraph and I agree with your second.

Wtfunny wrote:

The saving grace of the 100m is that it doesn't take too long. It's a nice idea for a race for those people who don't really run well and can't even complete a single full lap. It's like in swimming if they had a race across the pool.

The 100 takes longer than the 10k.

Numbers Game wrote:

If Africans or black people anywhere were doing well in the 50k this wouldn't be happening. But since the medalists are mainly those pesky Asians and hated whites it's time to do away it.

Do you believe this? The IAAF did turn World XC into a biennial event just a few years ago.

Not An Expert wrote:

Devil Dog wrote:

If I were in charge the full track program would be 100, 400, 1500, 5000, and marathon. Long jump and high jump. Javelin and shot put.

I would add the 200m hurdles and pole vault as individual events and eliminate the marathon from the Outdoor Track & Field program.

The problem is hurdles are stupid. And 200m is stupid. Combining them is wasting time.

The pole vault is stupid too. Who cares who high you can jump when aided by a stick? High jump=very cool. Pole vault=not very cool.

And the multi events are among the worst. It is in no way entertaining to watch a bunch of people do a bunch of things they're ok at. That's not why we watch the olympics.

I could be encouraged to drop the marathon, but then again I think of it as the most olympic of all olympic events.

we did it wrote:

This is the result of lrc trolls relentlessly bashing race walking.

Good. Walking is no more a sport than synchronized swimming or the bb gun, uh, sorry, air pistol.