In a recent post the IAAF announced groundbreaking changes to be implemented to race-walking competitions over the next few years. But before commenting on them let me make a very important statement.
I have the deepest respect for race-walkers, the athletes. They train very hard, and compete over long, endurance-based, taxing events. I will never criticise them. What I am criticising is this un-natural sport where the possibility of cheating is in-built (since it relies on a human-eye judgement, something utterly inefficient in this case). Having made this point I can now proceed to the IAAF announcement.
Just a year after the 50 km was added to women's program (and, in fact, just after the IAAF recommended to the IOC that it be included in the 2020, Tokyo, Olympics) the 50 km is going the way fo the dodo. In the 2021 World Championships both men and women will compete over 20 and 30 km (a ridiculous choice if there is one). From 2022 onwards the official distances will be 10 and 30 km. The latter distance will bring the duration of the event down to the Marathon one. Well, assuming that the athletes continue walking as they do now, i.e. essentially running.
And here comes the major change. From 2021 onwards a race-walking electronic control system will be implemented. It will consist in a sensor which will be fitted into the athletes' shoes and which will detect a loss of contact with the ground. Hunting around for references on the internet I found an, IAAF-funded, study by a team of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia but I could not get anything more than the description of the project. If implemented, this system will change radically what we call today race-walking. The athletes will be compelled to walk, lest they be disqualified.
The race-walkers themselves reacted immediately pointing out the various flaws in the new proposals. I suggest that you track down their response and read it: it is well-thought, just what one would expect from high-level specialists.
Looking for a picture to illustrate my post I stumbled upon a short video entitled "Race-walking is terrible". And, of course, race-walking as performed today is terrible, in the sense that the walking rules cannot be enforced. But let us suppose that with the new control system all "flight time" disappears. Would it be still worth keeping this discipline? My answer is a resounding "no". I have written on several occasions that for me race-walking would make sense only as an ultra-marathon race, say 100 km or more. It is precisely what E. Anthoine, the great french race-walker of the beginning of the past century, had been campaigning for. Unfortunately when race-walking was included in the olympic program, in 1932, it was over the shorter 50 km distance. The reason was certainly that a 10 hours race cannot be part of a world championship or of the olympics. If we decided to go for ultra-marathon-like race-walking, a special championship should be created for this, eschewing all shorter distances. But an even simpler solution would be to forget about this discipline. Just abolish it and be done with it.
I have the deepest respect for race-walkers, the athletes. They train very hard, and compete over long, endurance-based, taxing events. I will never criticise them. What I am criticising is this un-natural sport where the possibility of cheating is in-built (since it relies on a human-eye judgement, something utterly inefficient in this case). Having made this point I can now proceed to the IAAF announcement.
Just a year after the 50 km was added to women's program (and, in fact, just after the IAAF recommended to the IOC that it be included in the 2020, Tokyo, Olympics) the 50 km is going the way fo the dodo. In the 2021 World Championships both men and women will compete over 20 and 30 km (a ridiculous choice if there is one). From 2022 onwards the official distances will be 10 and 30 km. The latter distance will bring the duration of the event down to the Marathon one. Well, assuming that the athletes continue walking as they do now, i.e. essentially running.
And here comes the major change. From 2021 onwards a race-walking electronic control system will be implemented. It will consist in a sensor which will be fitted into the athletes' shoes and which will detect a loss of contact with the ground. Hunting around for references on the internet I found an, IAAF-funded, study by a team of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia but I could not get anything more than the description of the project. If implemented, this system will change radically what we call today race-walking. The athletes will be compelled to walk, lest they be disqualified.
The race-walkers themselves reacted immediately pointing out the various flaws in the new proposals. I suggest that you track down their response and read it: it is well-thought, just what one would expect from high-level specialists.
Looking for a picture to illustrate my post I stumbled upon a short video entitled "Race-walking is terrible". And, of course, race-walking as performed today is terrible, in the sense that the walking rules cannot be enforced. But let us suppose that with the new control system all "flight time" disappears. Would it be still worth keeping this discipline? My answer is a resounding "no". I have written on several occasions that for me race-walking would make sense only as an ultra-marathon race, say 100 km or more. It is precisely what E. Anthoine, the great french race-walker of the beginning of the past century, had been campaigning for. Unfortunately when race-walking was included in the olympic program, in 1932, it was over the shorter 50 km distance. The reason was certainly that a 10 hours race cannot be part of a world championship or of the olympics. If we decided to go for ultra-marathon-like race-walking, a special championship should be created for this, eschewing all shorter distances. But an even simpler solution would be to forget about this discipline. Just abolish it and be done with it.
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