Race walking has been an Olympic sport since 1904.

even still, doping to be the fastest walker is like doping to be the tallest midget

that's racist. next you'll say that if someone takes 4 hours to run a 1/2 mary that they are not runners

Brilliant. Triathlete doesn't know about race walking. I saw it live in London 2012. Those guys walk faster than most of us can run.

Racing walking: one of the more ridiculous Olympic sports. You know what they call people who can walk *really* fast?

Runners.

this is true, I stopped laughing at speed walkers when I discovered they were strolling @ sub 4 minute k's.... sort of like those 40kmph recumbent bikes....

Those guys race walk faster than the vast majority of runners can run. And again, it's an Olympic sport.

Hmmm because triathlon isn't a silly sport at all ? I think you're on thin ice here.

Ignorance never prevents some from posting.

They're fast because the vast majority are cheating by running. The technique is judged "by the eye" and hence easy to avoid detection. The fastest walkers, on review, run.

It's a stupid, stupid sport. I know those that participate train as hard as any other athlete, but that doesn't make it any less of just a terrible sport. Synchronised swimming also come to mind. And the butterfly in swimming.

Let us know when you can cover 50KM in 3:35-3:45....

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Rodney
TrainingPeaks | Altra Running | RAD Roller
http://www.goinglong.ca

Oh man! I 100 % agree with you. Super slo mo during competition show that both feet very often are not in contact with the ground. Especially when cornering. They are running strangely. Retarded sport.

How is it any stupider than high jump, long jump and sprinting events. Look at it at the most fundamental level and walking is the most important part of human existence/evolution. If we can't walk, we never get to the hunt and we all would not be here....you have to be able to walk and walk far for long periods just to get to the point of sprinting and then jumping. All of these sports are essential parts of human existence...same thing with throwing a javelin/spear (hunting). All other sports are concocted and built on top of these fundamental skills that humans possess. Nothing wrong with measuring which human can walk really far pretty fast (sub 4 min K). Sure, it may look stupid to us, but I am sure there are a bunch of guys pulling people around in cycle rickshaws in Asia for a living looking at us on our aero bikes and wondering why we are wasting so much energy riding weird non utilitarian bikes that have nothing to do with daily human existence....eye of the beholder can be vastly different

Personally I have no interest in race walking, but I can still accept and respect its existence and the athletes who are drawn to it. No different than us trying to Escape from Alcatraz or looping around the big Island...some would say it is stupid and like watching paint dry and they would be pretty well bang on in their minds.

The funny thing is that the Olympic race walks are very watchable and dramatic competitions. The "walking like a dork" factor increases the fun, and it is easy to follow the give and take between the leaders. Plus in the 50K you get to see people crash and burn.

Swimming, other than free stroke, is pathetic.

Every bloody Olympics we have to suffer a load of tall nutters wearing weird swimming costumes and nasty goggles swimming in a spasticated way designed to make them go slower than possible. Butterfly, breast stroke and complete madness backstroke, then they spend half the bloody length of the pool under water doing some sort of dolphin impersonation underwater which bears no resemblance to the stroke they are supposed to be using.

Worse they have too many events. 50m, 100m, 400m, 1500m and even worse different distances at doing all the spasticated strokes in one race.

Then you have more and more hours when the women come out and do all the same daft strokes. It isn't as the women are woth looking at, most of them have bigger shoulders than the men.

Wierd sport where the men look effeminate but the women look like men.

It is the equivalent of Athletics with races going backwards, running sideways, crawling, hopping, jumping, and running on all fours like a monkey.

To achieve this the demented lunatics that do the sport spend half their childhood swimming up and down in a way which isn't the fastest way, ruining their lives , and their parents lives getting up every morning to swim in a spasticated way up and down a piss filled bacteria ridden stinking chlorinated pool for hours before and after school.

Then when the world wants to watch proper sport we get hours and hours of swimming.

Most Olympics some genetic freak, American or Australia wins 10 gold medals swimming in these demented strokes.


The Olympics should ban all the daft strokes and all races should be freestyle.

Can you imagine cycling in different positions? How about cycling on the track in the superman position, the Obree tuck, facing backwards, sitting upright, and freestyle.

Swimming up and down a pool full of piss, bacteria and chlorine is a complete joke.

How can a sport where people deliberately race in a way which isn't the fastest way be allowed in the Olympics?

Racing 20 Kilometers without running, that is stupid too. No same person would do this. They wear shoes which are several sizes too big so the toe is still on the ground, but their foot isn't becase their big toe is half way up,th bloody shoe. Complete joke.

Can you imagine the high jump divided up into Thosbury flop, straddle, hopping, jumping with both feet together, with hands not allowed above the head?

Or how about ski jumping where the man who jumps the furthest does not win because there are marks for style? How can you have marks for style in the Olympics,

How about marks for style in the men's 1500m? The Kenyan who crosses the line first comes secomd because the judges gave the Ethiopian who crossed the line in second more marks for style.

You don't have to hate us just because we have a huge head start out of T1

Don't forget the triple jump, which is pretty high on the absurd factor.

Mr T does not approve either

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvpKouRTCx0

I think you miss the point. Running as fast as you can over various distances is sane, but running in a peculiar way which is slower as an event is daft. Yet in swimming you have a race over 200m freestyle, which is sane, and butterfly, breast stroke and backstroke which is slower and insane.

Triple jump yes I agree is stupid, at school we called it hop skip and jump which puts it in context. But high jump and long jump, who can jump the furthest and the highest, that is what the Olympics is all about, that is sport at its purest.

I have nothing against freestyle swimming, nothing against swimming as fast as you can. I only think swimming in stupid slower styles should be abolished.

I don't have a problem with seeing who can jump vertically the highest (separate competitions if you're doing it without a pole vs. when using a pole) and seeing who came jump horizontally the farthest (either in one fell swoop or when using a hop, skip, and a jump). When it comes to getting from point A to point B the fastest, I don't have a problem with seeing who can cover 100 meters the fastest vs. separate races for different distances or for having to jump over hurdles during the race.

However, it is artificial to race from point A to point B using a technique (e.g. walking vs. running on land or using the breast stroke vs. freestyle in water) that is inherently slower when there are faster ways of getting there. It would be pretty goofy if they ever come up with a competition for the person who can jump vertically the highest while approaching the bar via arm walking and jumping without having their feet touch the ground.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

I don't hate freestyle swimmers.

I disagree. I really enjoy watching the butterfly, backstroke. The medleys are great. Nothing insane about it in my opinion. They are still tremendous athletes with enormous skill going head-to-head. That's what competition is all about.

I have a hard time with race walking, I admit, but I do respect them as athletes. I have a hard time because, as noted, it's a very fine line between race walking and awkward running. The swimming strokes are all very clearly delineated, however.

My neighbor is a competitive race walker. I used to see him at the local gym super early every morning. He'd put a treadmill at an incline of 6-7 and a speed of about 4mph and...literally... pound it out for about 45mins. Every. Single. Day. I always kind of cringed because I could hear him "walking" across the gym.

Come on. . . Ice dancing . . . Rhythmic gymnastics . . . .Every one of those new X games like sports . . . .This at least pretends to be a sport.