Athletes ‘Cheating’ During Their Event at Paris Olympics

Highlights

Slow motion footage has gone viral on Reddit of the 20km race walk from the 1st of August at the Paris Olympics.
The footage shows athletes’ feet off the ground at the same time, which is illegal in the sport.
As per the rules, one foot must be grounded at all times.

One of the most prestigious athletic events in the world, if not the most, is the Olympics. Over 15 days, thousands of competitors compete in the Games. Every four years, a single city is awarded the opportunity to host the renowned occasion; this year, Paris has been selected to host.

The Games in Paris are in full swing as athletes from all across the globe are competing in various events, such as volleyball, badminton, table tennis, basketball, archery, etc. Although the Games started on the 27th of July, the first athletics event took place on the 1st of August. There are a lot of events under the athletics umbrella and one of those events is the 20km race walk.

20km Race Walk Under Scrutiny

Athletes 'Cheating' During Their Event at Paris Olympics

The 20-kilometre race walk is a type of road event that is generally conducted on a circuitous route, and after it took centre stage in the Olympics earlier this morning, controversy has soon followed with a clip going viral on Reddit. According to the r/olympics subreddit, a lot of the athletes participating in this particular event in Paris have been accused of cheating throughout the race.

According to World Athletics: “During the 20km race walk, athletes must have one foot in contact with the floor at all times. Failure to do this is known as ‘lifting’.” However, people have noticed that the athletes have not been following this rule. A lot of athletes did not have one foot in contact with the floor at all times and that resulted in lifting. There was no penalty awarded to the culprits, though, as only slow-motion cameras were able to capture the actual foul play.

This begs the question; is race walking a flawed sport? It seems that there is more leeway to get away with foul play in race walking than there is in any other sport. The footage on the Reddit post has generated a lot of negative feedback regarding the sport. A lot of people have claimed that it should not be a part of the Olympics as there is a lot of room to gain an unfair advantage in the sport.

The History of Race Walk

Men have competed in the 20-kilometre race walk as an Olympic sport since 1956, while women first participated in the sport at the Sydney 2000 Games. In 1992, women’s race walking made its Olympic debut over a 10-kilometre course. Despite being one of the most popular sports in the world, Chinese competitors have historically dominated the event, taking home four of the six men’s medals at the Olympics in 2012 and 2016.

Athlete Antonie Briksova of Czechoslovakia set the first women’s 20km race walk world record in September 1931 with a timing of 2:24:00. China’s Jiayu holds the current world record with a time of 1:23:49 from March 2021. In October 1911, Hermann Muller of Germany set the world record for the first men’s 20-kilometre race walk, clocking in at 1:38:43. Yusuke Suzuki of Japan now holds the men’s world record after setting an amazing time of 1:16:36 in March 2015.