New Olympic race-walking event on the cards in Paris criticized

World Athletics (WA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have agreed on the format for the new race-walking team event that will make its debut at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

However, the move has been met with criticism especially on social media with many arguing that the new event would water down race walking.

Evan Dunfee, a Canadian race walker and Olympian who is an Olympic and World medalist, has been one of the most vocal competitors. On twitter, he faulted the organisers for making changes that do away with the essence of the discipline, endurance.

“In 2017 we were told there was no way to have a women’s 50km walk in Tokyo because it was impossible to change the program 3 years out.

Now less than 500 days out we’ve had our event completely changed. Everyone in power is a disappointing pile of piss. (sic),” he writes.

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He continued, “The 35km mixed event was axed because OBS realized it would be too difficult to broadcast (which the athletes said the second that dumb format was announced years ago. But our opinion has never mattered).

The IOC, who had previously said they got rid of the 50km because it was too long, then suggested 2 35km’s back to back. The obvious solution was to have a men’s and women’s race simultaneously but WA leadership were too afraid of pushing back against the IOC.

There is now no endurance event for the walk which is what the event needs to be to make any sense. Sadly, I suspect by 2032 race walking will completely cease to exist. (I’m arbitrarily defining endurance as longer than your stored glycogen lasts).”

The Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay will feature 25 teams, each comprising one male and one female athlete, who will complete the marathon distance (42.195km) in four legs of approximately equal distance.

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Each athlete will complete two legs of just over 10km each, alternating male, female, male, female.

The marathon distance was selected because of its existing popularity in athletics and link to the traditions of the Olympic Games.

The event will be held on the same course as the individual race-walking events, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in central Paris, and will be completed in about three hours. The requirement of each athlete to complete two legs, will add an endurance component to the race.

The team qualification pathway for this new event will be published shortly.

The full Olympic athletics programme will span 11 days, from 1-11 August, finishing with the women’s marathon on the final day of the Games.