‘Betrayed’: 50K race walk faces axe
Evan Dunfee broke down in tears Wednesday in the middle of a rainy training walk around the dike in Richmond, B.C.
The Canadian race walker desperately wants to upgrade his fourth-place finish at the 2016 Rio Olympics to gold, silver or bronze at the Tokyo Summer Games in 2020.
But Dunfee fears he won’t get the chance given a proposal that would see his signature event — the 50-kilometre race walk — scrubbed from the Olympic menu.
The International Association of Athletics Federations is scheduled to meet in London in mid-April, where the competition program will be discussed.
“I just felt really betrayed that the athletes weren’t privy to any of this discussion,” Dunfee, 26, said Thursday. “It made getting out the door to go train pretty demoralizing. It just didn’t feel important.”
This is coming from a guy who lives for one more shot at an Olympic medal in what many consider the ultimate test of endurance.
“That’s what I wake up for in the morning,” Dunfee said. “It’s not about redemption, because I think I did pretty well in Rio, but it’s just about another opportunity to prove to myself that I can be up there.”
Dunfee said the sport does need to change, especially when it comes to gender equity. In Rio, the women had only one chance at a medal, in the 20-km race walk, whereas men competed in both the 20-km and 50-km events. But the 50-km race walk is open to both men and women at the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London and Dunfee would like to see it stay that way.
Australian race walker Chris Erickson started an online petition asking for the slate of Olympic events to remain the same in Tokyo as it was in Rio for 2020. The petition had 1,500 supporters as of Thursday afternoon, including Olympian Mathieu Bilodeau, who moved to Vancouver from Calgary last fall to start training for Tokyo.
“Of course, I am questioning our decision of making this change right now,” Bilodeau said. “I am not fast enough to compete with the best in the world at the 20-km or short distances.
“My strength is definitely long endurance events … I know I have the potential of being on the podium in 2020.”