how do you even get to sign up for these races? i google and i find people telling you how to do the walk itself but not how to participate in the events. info on the actual events is non existant
So a good place to start is under the USATF website athletic calendar. It marks all the big championships that are held in a season. The race you're watching here is an event at USA Indoor Championships. So you wouldn't necessarily find it by googleing it. You would have to search for a track meet that has a distance event for racewalk. And since so few people do it, it is pretty rare. But if you're interested in more info, I'd be happy to provide. It's definitely not as popular on the west coast as it is in the east coast. But there are always events being held around the world.
Close, it's more like trying to go as fast as you can while pushing the limits of the technique. I think what most people don't see is how often people DO get disqualified. A lot of people think that we are trying to run, and often times we do pay the price for it. Not to mention when you have a bad day, sometimes you form just looks like crap anyways and you get disqualified regardless. It dies happen.
@@EWALK No offense, but play this race at 0.25 speed. Literally EVERY single athlete is breaking contact with the ground. I would have so much more respect for this sport is judges were allowed to use camera's and rewatch footage to disqualify people.
@@UpshiftNL no offense taken, you are 100% right. If you play it in slow motion I would even go as far as to say that every single athlete is in the air. I recommend watching the Olympic walks on the 5th this month for even just a few minutes. You will see the same thing. The problem is, that the sport is extremely traditional, and it has been in the Olympics since 1904. There have been very few changes in that time although the athletes themselves have changed quite a bit (the form I mean) There were ideas being thrown around on how to fix this problem, one of which was putting foot sensors in shoes to detect a loss of contact with the ground. I'm in support of it, but not if the technology is 100% ready... which at the moment it isn't. Believe me when I say that I know there is cheating in the event. But with the best intentions, I would hope that no one would go out to purposefully cheat. It's not really the goal. At least not for me. That's kinda why I made this channel, to show people that there is more than meets the eye. But I really don't disagree with you, and if people don't talk about it, then we won't find a way to fix it, and hopefully make the event more popular and relatable. After all, walking is the number one method of transportation.
@@UpshiftNL at the moment, the use of cameras is not legally allowed. As athletes, we have very little say in that matter of how our sport is controlled, I know that sounds like a lame excuse but if you think of it like tennis, they use super slow motion cameras to check if the ball was in or out, and even then they are not allowed to use those cameras every single time. They only have 3 chances to use it. Because tennis is also super traditional, the rest of the calls need to be made by the human eye with judges. Hopefully that makes sense?
@@EWALK Makes 100% sense. It's just a bit weird to me they haven't implemented camera's in the sport, when almost every other sport, being it at the world championships, nationals, regionals , olympics etc, have adapted camera's, and race walking hasn't. I guess it all boils down to the fact whether athletes are breaking the rules on purpose, or pushing their own boundaries at maximum effort to go as fast as possible (and breaking the rules isn't on purpose in (most cases??).
Women's racewalking is good
how do you even get to sign up for these races? i google and i find people telling you how to do the walk itself but not how to participate in the events. info on the actual events is non existant
So a good place to start is under the USATF website athletic calendar. It marks all the big championships that are held in a season. The race you're watching here is an event at USA Indoor Championships. So you wouldn't necessarily find it by googleing it. You would have to search for a track meet that has a distance event for racewalk. And since so few people do it, it is pretty rare. But if you're interested in more info, I'd be happy to provide. It's definitely not as popular on the west coast as it is in the east coast. But there are always events being held around the world.
This sport is so dumb lol. It's all about not getting caught
Close, it's more like trying to go as fast as you can while pushing the limits of the technique. I think what most people don't see is how often people DO get disqualified. A lot of people think that we are trying to run, and often times we do pay the price for it.
Not to mention when you have a bad day, sometimes you form just looks like crap anyways and you get disqualified regardless. It dies happen.
@@EWALK No offense, but play this race at 0.25 speed.
Literally EVERY single athlete is breaking contact with the ground.
I would have so much more respect for this sport is judges were allowed to use camera's and rewatch footage to disqualify people.
@@UpshiftNL no offense taken, you are 100% right. If you play it in slow motion I would even go as far as to say that every single athlete is in the air. I recommend watching the Olympic walks on the 5th this month for even just a few minutes. You will see the same thing.
The problem is, that the sport is extremely traditional, and it has been in the Olympics since 1904. There have been very few changes in that time although the athletes themselves have changed quite a bit (the form I mean)
There were ideas being thrown around on how to fix this problem, one of which was putting foot sensors in shoes to detect a loss of contact with the ground. I'm in support of it, but not if the technology is 100% ready... which at the moment it isn't.
Believe me when I say that I know there is cheating in the event. But with the best intentions, I would hope that no one would go out to purposefully cheat. It's not really the goal. At least not for me. That's kinda why I made this channel, to show people that there is more than meets the eye. But I really don't disagree with you, and if people don't talk about it, then we won't find a way to fix it, and hopefully make the event more popular and relatable. After all, walking is the number one method of transportation.
@@UpshiftNL at the moment, the use of cameras is not legally allowed. As athletes, we have very little say in that matter of how our sport is controlled, I know that sounds like a lame excuse but if you think of it like tennis, they use super slow motion cameras to check if the ball was in or out, and even then they are not allowed to use those cameras every single time. They only have 3 chances to use it. Because tennis is also super traditional, the rest of the calls need to be made by the human eye with judges.
Hopefully that makes sense?
@@EWALK Makes 100% sense.
It's just a bit weird to me they haven't implemented camera's in the sport, when almost every other sport, being it at the world championships, nationals, regionals , olympics etc, have adapted camera's, and race walking hasn't.
I guess it all boils down to the fact whether athletes are breaking the rules on purpose, or pushing their own boundaries at maximum effort to go as fast as possible (and breaking the rules isn't on purpose in (most cases??).