1991 World Championships in Athletics - Men's 20 km Walk

The 1991 World Championships in Athletics - Men's 20 km Walk took place on August 24, 1991 in Tokyo and was won by Maurizio Damilano of Italy. (Really? That name is Italian? Duh.) The silver and bronze were both taken by Soviets. And, with that, my mind is racing. Racewalking, if you will.

Racewalking is a track event mandating that one foot "appears to be in contact with the ground at all times." Now, of course, the very thought of dudes doing the fast walk probably makes us all giggle. This particular race probably would have made me ROTFLMAO because I was 9 when it took place. Actually, thinking back to '91 and picturing this race makes me smile quite a bit because I'm picturing these guys wearing neon bike shorts and SurfStyle windbreakers. Yummy.

But let's not be accusatory and instead give these guys a little credit. Racewalking is no joke (except when they had it at this random track meet we did in high school--they had all these weirdo joke events like the Boys 1600m Walk and the Girls 3200m steeplechase, and since they were events nobody ever did for real life--and because they were 16-year-old guys, all the boys in that walk wore, um, neon bike shorts and SurfStyle windbreakers, actually).

Anyway, it's no joke. According to Wikipedia, racewalkers develop this cadence to move more quickly with their short strides and, effectively, become nearly as fast as 400m runners. AND the Olympic events are either 20km (12.4mi) or 50km (31mi)! By my calculations, Sr. Damilano won this race by WALKING 6-minute miles. TWELVE of them. OH EM GEE.

No wonder it was completely acceptable for a macho macho Italian to do such a gay-sounding sport. It's not ladylike at all. It's totally badass. Although I guess that doesn't explain the Soviet success in this event. I wouldn't really consider them most manly Olympians. Their specialty has always been gymnastics, yes? And hockey. Hockey is super gay. Then again, this was when they were doing their part to confuse the fuck out of the entire world with their USSR/CCCP/URS/Russia uniforms changing every day for about 4 years.

In any event, I'd like to conclude that I now have the utmost respect for racewalkers...although I still think I'd prefer if they dressed to entertain me, not to reduce resistance as they stroll through town at lighting speed.