EUGENE, Oregon – As part of the official schedule of the 2024 Trials, USATF, the United States track and field federation, dutifully staged 20-kilometer race walks for both men and women Saturday morning, and three men and three women finished 1-2-3 in each race and none stands much of a chance to go to Paris for the Olympics, and what are we doing here?
The third-place finisher on the women’s side Saturday is 58 years old, Michelle Rohl, mother of five, grandmother of one. She competed in the Olympics in 1992, 1996 and 2000. Allen James, who competed in the Games in 1992 and 1996, finished 14th Saturday in the men’s race. He is 60.
The track events Saturday afternoon were dominated by stars racing at Hayward Field, the centerpiece stadium in Eugene – Noah Lyles, Kenny Bednarek, Erriyon Knighton, Gabby Thomas, Sha’Carri Richardson, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and more. The field events, also at Hayward, saw long jump standout Tara Davis-Woodhall and in the shot put two-time world champion Chase Jackson and Tokyo silver medalist Raven Saunders.
Race walk? Not even in Eugene, relegated to a loop course in neighboring Springfield. OK, downtown Springfield.
Michelle Rohl, 58, third place in Saturday’s women’s race walk // John Nepolitan /DyeStat
If track and field were a “family,” race walk in the United States would be that kid hidden in the closet under the stairs. Sorry, no magic.
Indeed, farthest thing from: Elliott Denman, 11th in the 50k walk in Melbourne in 1956, for many years now a New Jersey-based journalist and historian, told the Times of San Diego outlet it’s likely Paris will be the first Olympics since 1904 without an American race walker.
Late Saturday, as they were cleaning up at Hayward, I told a longtime friend who is a big deal here at these Trials that I was writing about race walk, and the response was one word – why?
Because, people, race walk may have its quirks. But it is legit. A 20k race walk is 12 miles. Remember the last time you walked as fast as you could to the gate at the airport? Now take it up several notches and do that for 12 miles. Race walk is serious, and for all the zany zingers thrown at it the athletes are just like the marathoners on the run side.
Is it sexy? Not the right question – for more, see below. Does it afford medal opportunities? Yes, and for more, again, below.
The United States is the land of venture capital, private equity and, now, NIL and, as well, literally tens of thousands of capable distance runners who if they stick with running no way no how will sniff the Olympics but who by switching to race walk might see the easiest of doors swing wide open.
Thus, the obvious follow-up:
Is the United States maximizing creative thinking to get medals in race walk? Easy answer: no.
It’s too late for Paris but planning and purpose for LA 2028 and beyond needs to start – now.
This is not a let’s assign blame column – oh, the race walkers are the problem. Or USATF is the problem. None of that is constructive.
Let’s step back and call this for what it is — there are no U.S. race walkers in the Olympics for the first time since 1904, which means, look, this is a beyond-not-good situation. In classic American fashion, if this were a corporation, someone would figure out how to fix this, and fast, and that’s what ought to happen.
This is, in essence, a business problem that demands solution.
Right now, it’s a resource issue – there’s not enough physical capital to invest in. There’s limited finance, yes. Even with limited finance, the physical capital – the athletes – aren’t there.
Women’s winner Saturday: 41 years old. Runner-up: 35. Third: 58.
Pick any track event for comparison.
Women’s 200. Winner: 27. Runner-up: 29. Third: 23.
Women’s 10K. Winner: 27. Second: 21. Third: 28.
This country has roughly 330 million people. The United States has not won a medal in race walking since 1972.
Unacceptable, especially because in other unlikely disciplines the United States has proven it can win:
For instance, Brooke Andersen won the world championships hammer throw in 2022, Laulauga Tausaga-Collins discus in 2023.
And, let’s be direct:
The No. 1 point of going to an Olympics is to win medals. The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee is straight up about this. In the individual race walk events, men’s and women’s, there are (obviously) six medals in play.
For the Paris Games, and presumably going forward, World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field, has a new deal, a mixed relay. So, three more medals. There will be 25 teams. For Paris, the U.S. sits 30.
In Paris, both the individual and mixed relay walks will take place on the same course – at the foot of the Eiffel Tower – proof that surely the walks matter. Not exactly, uh, downtown Springfield.
That the U.S. sits 30, by the by, is accurate but misleading. A primer because sometimes track and field rules can get technical. The first, and primary, qualifying event for the Paris relay was this spring, in Turkey. The top 22 placing nation-teams qualified for the Games, with a limit of two teams per nation. The United States sent three teams. None made the top 22. The 23rd, 24th and 25th teams come from the three fastest teams during the qualifying window. On the World Athletics list, the U.S. team is indeed 30 – but that means, if we all understand how to read a list, they stand eighth in line.
Which means: very unlikely to get qualified.
Why aren’t the top three in Saturday’s walks going to Paris? Because they haven’t met the individual standards for the 2024 Games.
For men, the minimum qualifying time is 1:20.10. For women, 1:29.20.
Nick Christie, 32, won Saturday in 1:24.46. The field size in Paris: 48. His World Rankings quota is 75. He finished 50th in Tokyo in 2021.
Saturday’s win was his 33rd national title, according to the track and field website Dyestat.com. This means that over the years the United States has arguably produced no serious challenger. If he is the best this country has, finished 50th in Tokyo, and didn’t qualify this year, what — as a business proposition — would that logically suggest about investing resources in him toward international medal prospects going forward? He would be 36 in 2028.
Men’s race walk winner Nick Christie // John Nepolitan/DyeStat
Robyn Stevens won the women’s race, in 1:37.38. Miranda Melville took second, 1:39.38. Rohl, 1:42.27.
Stevens finished 33rd in Tokyo. Her World Rankings quota is 77. She told DyeStat afterward the race might be her last “as a full-time athlete … focused on Olympic training and stuff.”
Christie and Melville would be the American mixed-team entry.
Rohl, the 58-year-old third-place finisher, said after Saturday’s race in an interview with the website Olympics.com:
“It’s interesting. My first Olympic Trials, in ’92, I was third. I had a baby then, and now I’ve got a grandbaby and I’m third again. So that was kind of cool.”
She said she had zero expectation here of earning a medal. She was really here, she said, as part of preparation for what she hoped would be wins in both running and walking at forthcoming master’s events.
Indisputably, there is something to celebrate in the story of a woman who stepped away from the sport to raise a family, to homeschool her children, and came back starting so out of shape that, as she said, “I’m like, I can’t run a mile. So, like, that’s OK. We’ll start right there.”
But that’s a different story than the one that needs to be confronted when it comes to the direction of race walk in the United States.
It’s the one about – physical capital. Getting athletes into it who can win.
And here is where we introduce a conversation that John Nunn, the three-time Olympic race walker (20004, 2012-16), had with Tianna Madison, the Rio 2016 long jump champion and two-time (2012-16) 4x1 women’s relay gold medalist, when he – who lives in SoCal – was up visiting her in the Bay Area.
Nunn, who retired late last year from the U.S. Army after 23 years and is now a physician’s assistant, said he was telling Madison – who has written a book, has a toddler and is an advocate for a variety of compelling interests – that when he meets people and they find out he made three Olympic teams, it’s a great conversation starter. Almost always, he said, the next question is – did you medal? The answer is no and, he said, the conversation ends.
Outside the Olympic bubble, Nunn said, these exchanges typically amount to no more than 30-second convos. He said to her, I assume that since you have won multiple medals, the conversation lasts another 15 or 20 seconds. Yes, she said, about that.
“Here’s Tianna, all these marquee events,” Nunn said Saturday in a telephone interview, “and conversations with people outside the Olympic bubble last 15 or 20 seconds – who cares that it’s race walking?”
Actually, Madison said, also speaking Saturday in a phone interview, what people typically want to know, other than did you medal, is this: “‘Did you meet Usain Bolt?’ That’s the question you’re going to get.”
She also said, “There is life outside the Olympics but people outside the Olympics don’t care what you went to the Olympics for. That’s the glory of it. It opens doors, windows, all these things. You don’t have to explain. Nor do they care.”
Back, then, to Nunn:
“Noah Lyles and other guys will be the face of Paris. But when the Olympics end and they come home and their careers are over, it looks great on a resume and it might – it will – open doors. But the conversation will last no more than one minute about the Olympics. That’s what I have found over the last eight years – being a three-time Olympian.
“And that’s what I have found about race walking. So why are people so stuck? These spots are wide open.”
Wide open. Time to figure out how to capitalize. Which is what we do best in the United States.