Some people walk, some people run. And then there are people who apparently couldn’t decide for one of these options – so called racewalkers. What at first glance sounds like a rare species unbeknownst to most of mankind is really a popular athletic discipline in Poděbrady, in Czech Republic, where the World Championship is located. Lucie Nekulova, a former professional racewalker herself, walked with us through the history of the sport.

Cet article a été écrit par des jeunes journalistes du projet Europe Convergence 2024, porté par Magna Vox, le Partnerschaftsverband, et VISK (Vzdělávací institut středočeského kraje)

Racewalking is quite an unusual sport. How did you get into that?

Basically, racewalking is just another part of the athletic disciplines. I was 13 or 14 years old when I joined the athletic club, and my coach suggested to me that I’m trying all the disciplines to find out which one would fit me best. The problem was that I came from a small village and so my options were limited: no hurdles because we didn’t have a setup, no throwing because there wasn’t enough space. So at the end we decided to go for racewalking, and my coach immediately noticed that I had a promising technique and was very talented. I have to admit that I didn’t like it that much in the beginning, but eventually I went for it – and won the Czech nationals the same year.

Great first milestone in your career – what other achievements have you been able to celebrate?

There is one success that is really outstanding for me. Around the year 2000 there was a change in the rules for the women category, the track’s length went from ten to twenty kilometers. I was the first one who managed to racewalk 20km under 1 hour 40 minutes, and until this day, there are only like a handful of women who were able to pull this off.

That’s an impressive one kilometer in just five minutes.

Yes, although my records has of course been broken since a long time. But I’m okay with that. In my opinion, records should not stay unbroken for too long a time, since it would imply that there is no progress happening. The actual record is 1 hour 16 minutes, with the highest speed of 16.5 kilometers per hour.

Can you tell us where Racewalking originates from?

Like many disciplines, especially the athlectic ones, the origin of Racewalking dates back to the 19th century from the track and field community in England. The first races actually where quite popular competitions between postmen. I’ve seen an old photo of it with hundreds of them waiting at the starting line, the streets packed with curious spectators, it looked amazing!

And where is it the most popular today?

Spain would be the first country I think of, I don’t even know why but its extremely popular there. If you watch the races of Gadi or La Coruña, you see hundreds of children participating in each of the categories. Other countries would be Italy or France, its quite popular there too. China has a lot of great athletes, and Japan also has to be named since they like long distance races there.

« I was the first one who managed to racewalk 20km under 1 hour 40 minutes »

How does the typical training day for a Racewalker look like – if it even exists?

Not really, except that most of the exercises focus on stamina since you need a lot of it in Racewalking. But apart of that, there are a lot of different possibilities. You could, for example, racewalk ten kilometers and increase the speed in the last two. Or you can do some short intervalls of 200, 300 steps and push your maximum speed. I once met Aurelien Quinion, one of France’s best racewalker, at the airport and asked him how he’s spending the day before the race. The race itself was 35 kilometers, and he casually told me that he’s going to prepare with a short training race of “only” ten kilometers. I thought he was joking, but he was not, and he actually won the race and set a new french national record. It was incredible.

I have heard that there is only one rule for Racewalking, which is to keep contact with your feet to the floor at all times?

Actually there are two of them. The first one is the contact rule you already mentioned, but the speed sometimes is so high that there is a little loss of contact. So the rule got precised: you have to be able to see the loss of contact with your bare eye and the human eye cannot see things below 0.60 milliseconds. The second rule is to keep a straight knee.

And if people break these rules?

There are three different judges, and everyone has to take a look on the questioned action. If they unanimously vote for a violation of the rules, than they hand out a warning and look closely if the warned participant has corrected its mistake. If that is not the case, they can go to the chief judge, who then can disqualify them permanently. 10 years or somewhat ago, there has been a change: Now participants don’t get disqualified immediately but have to go to a penalty zone first. How long they have to stay there is dependant from the racing distance: 30 seconds for 5 kilometers, a minute for ten, two minutes for twenty and so on.

Can you give us some insights about the race walking meetings in Podebrady?

Speaking of the Podebrady racewalk meeting, it has been the 92th edition this year. The first one was in 1898 with a race from Prague to Podebrady, but the regular ones started 1932. Most of the races are organized by private people and local race walking clubs. There is a club from Zerenburg that always is responsible for building the course, for example the fences so that nobody can pass through, or the refreshing stations with ice and drinks. Only the most important international competitions are hosted from the world athletic club.

That sounds like it is hard to be a full-time professional racewalker?

Unfortunately, that’s something I have to confirm. Most of the people work in part time, others got luckier as they are supported by the federation or get money from sponsors for racing shoes or training camps. Its also a different system from country to country, the situation in Czech is different to the one in France or England. But generally, only the best of the best can live from it.

Text : Felix Werner, Paul Dufour / Photos : Gemma Anglesio, Poděbrady Race Walking

This article has been written by young journalists from the project Europe Convergence 2024