RACEWALKING

Men's 20 km walk during the 2005 World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, Finland. The man on the far right is illegally "lifting".

Race walking, sometimes referred to as speedwalking, is a special long-distance race event in athletics in which the participants must walk. It is distinguished from running by the requirement that at any time at least one foot has contact with the ground (judged by the naked eye) and the supporting leg must be straightened (not bent at the knee) from the moment of the first impact of the foot with the ground until the supporting leg passes below the body). The participants swivel and tilt their hips to lengthen their strides and strive to get up on the toe as high as possible, while keeping the leading foot on the ground. World-class racewalkers can walk a mile (1.6 km) in under six minutes.

In competition, race walkers are expected to maintain good form and are penalized for bending the knee as it passes under the body or having no foot-to-ground contact. The latter infraction is known as lifting. There are judges on the course to monitor form and three judges submitting "red cards" for violations results in disqualification. There is a scoreboard placed on the course so competitors can see their violation status. If the third violation is received, the chief judge removes the competitor from the course by showing a red paddle. For monitoring reasons, races are held on a looped course or on a track so judges get to see competitors several times during a race. A judge could also "warn" a competitor that they are in danger of losing form by using a yellow paddle showing either lifting or bent knees. Disqualifications are routine at the elite level, such as the famous case of Jane Saville disqualified within sight of a gold medal in front of her home crowd in the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Race walking is an Olympic sport with distances of 20 kilometers for both men and women and 50 kilometers for men only. A World Cup event in race walking is held biennally. Fitness-wise, it is said to exceed the caloric requirements of running because of stronger arm motion and less efficiency than running.

While race walking is the official name for the sport, many people who are not familiar with the event call it speedwalking, as racers walk at a fast pace. This term is disliked by race walkers, as it is the term that was used by those in the fitness industry (i.e. not track & field) to denote extra exertion while walking, but without any of the rules explained above.

Race walking in film

• Walk Don't Run: (Columbia Pictures Corporation)A 1966 Cary Grant movie, revolving around race walking at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
• Rael's Racewalker: (Acropolis Films, LLC)A 2005 documentary film adapted from footage of an actual World Masters Championship Race walk event.
• Rocketboom episode on race walking.

Top 10 performers

Accurate as of January 1, 2006.

Men

20 km

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
1:17:21	Jefferson Pérez	Ecuador	Paris	August 23, 2003
1:17:22	Francisco Javier Fernández	Spain	Turku	April 28, 2002
1:17:23	Vladimir Stankin	Russia	Adler	February 8, 2004
1:17:33	Nathan Deakes	Australia	Cixi	April 23, 2005
1:17:41	Hongjun Zhu	China	Cixi	April 23, 2005
1:17:46	Julio René Martínez	Guatemala	Eisenhüttenstadt	May 8, 1999
1:17:46	Roman Rasskazov	Russia	Moscow	May 19, 2000
1:17:53	Zhide Cui	China	Cixi	April 23, 2005
1:17:56	Alejandro López	Mexico	Eisenhüttenstadt	May 8, 1999
1:18:04	Lingtang Bo	China	Beijing	April 7, 1994

50 km

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
3:35:29	Denis Nizhegorodov	Russia	Cheboksary	June 13, 2004
3:36:03	Robert Korzeniowski	Poland	Paris	August 27, 2003
3:36:06	Chaohong Yu	China	Nanjing	October 22, 2005
3:36:13	Chengliang Zhao	China	Nanjing	October 22, 2005
3:36:20	Yucheng Han	China	Nanjing	February 27, 2005
3:36:42	German Skurygin	Russia	Paris	August 27, 2003
3:37:26	Valeriy Spitsyn	Russia	Moscow	May 21, 2000
3:37:41	Andrey Perlov	USSR	Leningrad	August 5, 1989
3:37:46	Andreas Erm	Germany	Paris	August 27, 2003
3:37:58	Shucai Xing	China	Nanjing	February 27, 2005

Women

20 km

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
1:24:50	Olimpiada Ivanova	Russia	Adler	March 4, 2001
1:25:18	Tatyana Gudkova	Russia	Moscow	May 19, 2000
1:25:20	Olga Polyakova	Russia	Moscow	May 19, 2000
1:25:29	Irina Stankina	Russia	Moscow	May 19, 2000
1:25:59	Tamara Kovalenko	Russia	Moscow	May 19, 2000
1:26:22	Yan Wang	China	Guangzhou	November 19, 2001
1:26:22	Yelena Nikolayeva	Russia	Cheboksary	May 18, 2003
1:26:23	Liping Wang	China	Guangzhou	November 19, 2001
1:26:28	Irina Pudovkina	Russia	Adler	March 12, 2005
1:26:35	Hongyu Liu	China	Guangzhou	November 19, 2001

Other famous race walkers

• Capt. Barclay (Robert Barclay-Allardice)
• Yuling Chen
• Andrej Chylinkski
• Maurizio Damilano
• Vladimir Golubnichi
• George Goulding
• Jerzy Hausleber
• Bengt Kannenberg
• Robert Korzeniowski
• Jack Mortland
• Dave Romanksy
• Henry Laskau
• Ron Laird
• Larry Young
• Ron Zinn