a lot of the people against race walking seem like they have similar types of arguments as those people who say track is dumb.
And its not like everyone and their brother cares about T+F either. But its still a valid olympic sport.
a lot of the people against race walking seem like they have similar types of arguments as those people who say track is dumb.
And its not like everyone and their brother cares about T+F either. But its still a valid olympic sport.
qualifications about race-walking aside, one thing i cant stand is that one of the forms of wrestling (freestyle, greco-roman) is out while race-walking stays. Wrestling has a rich tradition that extends all the way back to the first olympics, to the time of Milo of Croton, while RWing has a rich tradition that extends all the way back to... uh...
to those who say "dont knock it till youve tried it", dont one legged hopping or pogo-sticking fall under the auspices of your argument? i'd much rather stick a gold medal around the neck of Ashrita Furman.
In response to mjr...I have seen at least 50 walking races, and my statement that I have seen blatant cheating in every one still stands.
As to the rest of your post, I happen to think O'Reilly's a fraud and a bully with a rigged program, and Limbaugh is an anti-intellectual blowhard who would never dare meet any dissenter on an equal footing.
Are we clear?
Proper perspective wrote:
...I have seen at least 50 walking races, and my statement that I have seen blatant cheating in every one still stands.
Ok, but were these races w/ kids or elites? Then, if they were w/ elites, do you have any idea what makes a walker legal or illegal? My guess is no. The answer is biomechanics. The details are too long for this forum, but in a nutshell - running is when the body's weight is supported by the quadriceps as a result of the knee being bent on contact, whereas walking has a straighten leg and the bones support the weight. Also the contact rule must be determined by the eye of the judge, not video. Even in pedestrian walking, gallowalking, mall walking, etc., there is momentary loss of contact (without it we wouldn't get very far and would probably still be living in trees), you just can't see it without a camera.
mjr wrote:
Race Walking is more popular that Soccer in Mexico. It is their National Sport. More people watch Race Walking events in the countries you mentioned than will watch all but the Penn Relays here. Looking for an excuse to go to Tijuana? The first event of the IAAF RW Grand Prix is there March 8-9. Go see for yourself. Expect that the President of Mexico will be there in the stands.
Mike,
You've got to be kidding me on this one. Soccer is the national sport in mexico. You lose credibility by stating this claim. It makes us not want to believe your other claims.
Now you're telling us that racewalks in Europe regularly get 20,000+ fans in attendance? If so, could you tell us where this occurs.
And as for racewalking being a road event, we don't see too many world class racewalks anywhere. You see lots of marathons and half-marathon. The Olympics should not be for fringe sports like racewalking.
But mainly racewalking should not be in the olympics because the concept of racewalking is a joke. Saying the limits placed on athletes in racewalking and those on the rest of track and field disciplines are similar is being a bit intellectually dishonest. With the flat events there are almost no rules except for run as fast as you can to the finish. Obviously there has to be rules with starting, finishing, the distance and impeding other competitors but that's about it. With the hurdles, barriers are placed in front of the athletes but the concept is still to get over them as fast as possible. The only event I can think of that has false restrictions on athletes is perhaps the triple jump (i'm not sure of the history of the event), but the concept is still to go as far as you can with a hop step and a jump. Maybe some would argue it should be to go as far as you can in any 3 steps possible.
...racewalks in Europe regularly get 20,000+ fans in attendance? If so, could you tell us where this occurs...
Try these events for starters...
March 2003 Sat 8 Sun 9 IAAF Race Walking Challenge Tijuana (MEX)
April 2003 Sat 5 IAAF Race Walking Challenge Rio Maior (POR)
May 2003 Thu 1 IAAF Race Walking Challenge Sesto S. Giovanni (ITA)
Sat 24 Sun 25 IAAF Race Walking Challenge Shanghai (CHN)
June 2003 Sat 7 IAAF Race Walking Challenge La Coruña (ESP)
...Saying the limits placed on athletes in racewalking and those on the rest of track and field disciplines are similar is being a bit intellectually dishonest...
Absolutely not. All sport is an arbitrary combination of silly rules to produce an end result of spirited competition to decide who is athletically superior in that endeavor. Geez, look at baseball, the whole concept is ridiculous, but we love it nonetheless. The average American thinks cricket is absurb confusion, but without it, there would be no baseball, as it is the predecessor of it. All of modern T&F began with the English & American footraces in the mid-late 1800's. These races, btw, were walking races until people started to run in them. As a result, rules were formaulted to differentiate the two styles of footraces. 100+ years later, we waste our time arguing over this on a messageboard.
Each & every T&F event has its own legitimacy and beauty. No one is making anyone else like or watch the events that they don't appreciate. RWing doesn't take any OG or WC spots from any runners and doesn't interfere with the conduct of their races either. If you don't like it, don't watch it, that's all.
Just a sidebar-A rough guess is that less than $1 million is spent on RW by all of the sport governing bodies in the US annually. Stanford & Arkansas combined spend more on their teams annually. All the Alphabets combined probably spend over $50 million annually on LDR programs. Yet the only International medal from 1997 on in an event over 800m by a US athlete is in the RW. Go figure!
Another fast racewalker.
Ireland\'s Rob Heffernan ran mid 18\'s for a 4 mile road race last year. I forget the exact time, but that it was 10 seconds faster than he\'d walked 5k the week before.
All of modern track and field did not begin in the 1800's. I have read accounts of foot races back in the ancient times of the real olympics, in addition to the discus, wrestling, and some other events, but no walking, interesting. Nice try though.
wejo wrote:
You don't see a racewalk at nearly any IAAF meets for a reason. No one cares about it. Thus, it shouldn't be in the olympics.
Um, in the U.S., yes, this is true. However, walking is HUGE in Mexico, Italy, etc. I mean, this sort of a jingostic sentiment. Should we get rid of curling in the Winter Olympics because Americans don't like it?? Come on.
Walks are typically contested on the road in their own meets, if you want to be accurate.
mjr wrote:
All sport is an arbitrary combination of silly rules to produce an end result of spirited competition to decide who is athletically superior in that endeavor. Geez, look at baseball, the whole concept is ridiculous, but we love it nonetheless.
THANK YOU!
I fail to understand why people take such issue with racewalking. People complain about the judging when they don't understand the rules themselves.
NEWS FLASH: You're not supposed to look like you are WALKING. The rules developed when walking races were big in Europe in the early 20th century. They had to do SOMETHING to make sure people weren't running.
TO THE NAKED EYE -if you aren't sure, you side with the athelte. Its like that in any other aspect of track, its like that in the walk.
Donnerbauer wrote:
MJR-
I am a teammate of Mike Tarantino and can assure you that he is not a 4:17 miler. He ran a 4:26 1600 in High School and a 4:11 1500 2 weekends ago. Also some of your other stats are wrong, but I don't want to get into this racewalking debate too much.
What other stats are wrong?
Antonia was an NAIA as well as a NCAA D2 All American.
Stevens ran a 17:59 and broke 5 for a track mile and Rohl did qualify for the Olympic Trials in the marathon...
wejo wrote:
Mike,
You've got to be kidding me on this one. Soccer is the national sport in mexico. You lose credibility by stating this claim. It makes us not want to believe your other claims.
Granted, its probably not BIGGER than soccer but its POPULAR down there. How is that so hard to believe? I mean, Europeans love track. They bet on track. Americans never go to meets, so we have more world class meets in Europe. Likewise, there are more international events in Mexico because they get people there to WATCH.
Treehorn--
Those other stats are correct. On a side note I would just like to say that I agree with WEJO on this subject... I'll probably take some heat for that, but I just don't consider racewalking a sport and it should not be in the Olympics. Just my 2 cents.
Robyn Stevens ran a 4:58 and a 10:09 3K in HS. She was even a DyeStat all American.
Since then she has been focusing on racewalking, she hasnt broke 5:00. You could take any great runner and turn them into an elite racewalker. The problem is, great runners want to RUN, not WALK.
If they choose to walk, they have chosen to sacrifice achieving anymore running PR's in their running events. That is just how it goes. You either train to walk or run. Can't do both and expect to succeed in both.
will you get over it already?
I don't really feel strongly one way or the other about whether racewalking stays in the Olympics - or about racewalking itself. If people want to do it, fine. At least they are out getting exercise, no matter how strange it looks.
However, my overall impression of racewalkers was formed a couple of years ago when I volunteered at a local race that included an award category for racewalkers. The number of complaints and demands lodged at the race staff by the racewalkers far exceeded the number lodged by the runners, even though walkers made up just a fraction of the total participants. I don't know enough about the circumstances to say whether the complaints were valid, but that really stuck in my mind. Lots of whining and not many "thank you"'s. Maybe it was just a bad day for a lot of people.
I agree. Racewalkers have got to be the biggest bunch of whiney little bitches you have ever met. The Rohl's (Michelle and Mike) as well as Deb Lawrence are a bunch of cheap ass complainers. I think its a feeling of self inadequecy that will do that to you. Thats why the only people that like racewalkers, are other racewalkers.
Definitely a wierd breed of people.
Aren't we a little ass. I believe you are the one being the whiney bitch! And what exactly is WIERD? Try wEIrd, dumbass!
bmt states: [Am sorry to hear wejo doesn't dig race walking, having watched him at x-c nats this past week it looked like he was a big fan of the sport.]
That was a very low blow! I am sure you obviously do not know about WEJO and his PRs, races, stats, etc.
bmt,
Whatever dude. You are the one who was making fun of a runner much faster than you, and it's not like you made fun of his hair or his butt (like some people have) or something non-running related - you made fun of the dude's running.
Gotta have the stats to make that noise my brother.