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Being retired I have plenty of time to waste watching the Olympics. Yesterday instead of watching a gang fight in the pool, better known as water polo, on the English station, I switched to the Spanish station for awhile and watched some of the women's 20K walking race.
It was interesting that in the long shots it just looked like a bunch of people walking. If you looked more carefully at those long shots you could tell they were really roaring down the road!
The big problem with the walking race is, of course, you can't run. Not only is it awkward walking that fast, but after trying it for a few minutes when I was a kid, I quickly learned it's a great way to get a pain in your shins. You have to do all the work with your calves, when it's your thighs that are the strong muscles in your legs. On the closer shots of the walkers you could see their calf muscles really straining. Every once in a while you'd see one of the racers bouncing up and down compared to everyone else. This is not good because it's a sure sign the person is running not walking. A offical would come over and literally stick a card in her face to show she was doing it wrong. If you get caught 3 times you're out of the race. The problem is your body wants to run if you are going that fast. If you don't concentrate on walking you will run. They showed a clip of the Olympics in Syndey where an Australian woman was just about to win. She entered the stadium got excited, forgot to walk, and was disqualified in sight of the finish after walking almost 20K meters. I didn't watch the whole race, but looking in the paper this morning I think the same Australian woman won a medal this time. I'm glad she got something this time. It does seem like race walking would be a very painful and frustrating thing to compete in as a way to athletic glory.
It also occured to me that the gentleman founders of the Olympic movement may or may not have been comfortable with the idea of women someday competing. But, I'm pretty sure the idea of a couple score women in bikinis blazing down the streets of town, would have been a big shock. ;o)
It was interesting that in the long shots it just looked like a bunch of people walking. If you looked more carefully at those long shots you could tell they were really roaring down the road!
The big problem with the walking race is, of course, you can't run. Not only is it awkward walking that fast, but after trying it for a few minutes when I was a kid, I quickly learned it's a great way to get a pain in your shins. You have to do all the work with your calves, when it's your thighs that are the strong muscles in your legs. On the closer shots of the walkers you could see their calf muscles really straining. Every once in a while you'd see one of the racers bouncing up and down compared to everyone else. This is not good because it's a sure sign the person is running not walking. A offical would come over and literally stick a card in her face to show she was doing it wrong. If you get caught 3 times you're out of the race. The problem is your body wants to run if you are going that fast. If you don't concentrate on walking you will run. They showed a clip of the Olympics in Syndey where an Australian woman was just about to win. She entered the stadium got excited, forgot to walk, and was disqualified in sight of the finish after walking almost 20K meters. I didn't watch the whole race, but looking in the paper this morning I think the same Australian woman won a medal this time. I'm glad she got something this time. It does seem like race walking would be a very painful and frustrating thing to compete in as a way to athletic glory.
It also occured to me that the gentleman founders of the Olympic movement may or may not have been comfortable with the idea of women someday competing. But, I'm pretty sure the idea of a couple score women in bikinis blazing down the streets of town, would have been a big shock. ;o)