Race walking
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Race walking, or racewalking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the gro
Race walkers at the U.S. World Cup Trials in 1987
Men's 20 km walk during the 2005 World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, Finland. The walker at the right appears to be breaking the rules of race walking as both feet are off the ground, but according to the current rules, an infraction is only committed when the loss of contact is visible to the human eye.
Shaul Ladany (centre), in 1969
An example of a racewalker in a "flight phase" (both feet entirely out of contact with the ground, a rule violation)
Pedestrianism
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Pedestrianism was a 19th-century form of competitive walking, often professional and funded by wagering, from which the modern sport of racewalking developed.
Race walking
…championships and games typically feature 20 km racewalking events. The sport emerged from a British culture of long-distance competitive walking known as pedestrianism, which began to develop the ruleset that is the basis of the modern discipline around the mid-19th century. Since the mid-20th century onwards, Russian…
An 1836 illustration of a "Walking Wager", from Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation, by Anonymous, Philadelphia
Foster Powell
African American walking match at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, North Carolina, 1879