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In Antwerp in
1920
,
18-year-old Italian
Ugo Frigerio provides
the arena’s band
conductor with
sheet music to be
performed during
his race. Though he
stops to admonish
the band for its errant
tempo, he wins easily.
The U.S.S.R. makes its first
foray into racewalking in
1952
,
in Helsinki, and its champion,
Bruno Junk, takes home the
bronze—despite the fact that he
and Swiss Silver Medalist Fritz
Schwab broke into sprints near
the finish line, infuriating Swedish
Gold Medalist John Mikaelsson,
as well as the seven previously
disqualified competitors.
Perhaps because of photos showing that
1976
champion Daniel Bautista commit-
ted lifting violations, the Moscow
1980
Olympic Games are a study in severity.
Seven walkers are disqualified, including
Bautista, only 2,500 meters from the
finish. As Soviet Anatoly Solomin takes
the lead, he too is disqualified, leaving
Italian Maurizio Damilano to take the
win in 1:23:35.5, shaving a full minute
off Bautista’s 1976 time.
do wonders for the sport’s credibility.
It could be a long shot: The last (and only)
U.S. racewalker to win an Olympic Medal
was Larry Young, who took bronze in
both 1968 and 1972. But if anyone can pull
an upset and end the 40-year drought,
it’s Barron, says his coach, Tim Seaman,
himself a two-time Olympic racewalker.
“Trevor is a great athlete. He has shocked
the world.”
Even getting to the Olympic Games
is an act of physical and mental endur-
ance for U.S. racewalkers. While Russian,
Chinese and Ecuadorian racewalkers
are buoyed by cheering spectators and
generous stipends, most U.S. racewalkers
train alone and have to defend themselves
against charges ofweirdness. Seaman gets
sick of hearing the cu ing comments.
“It is the same as the bu erfly in swim-
ming,” he says. “Normal people can’t do the
bu erfly. It makes no sense. But I’m not
going to tellMichael Phelpshe looksweird.”
IT’S A RAW WINTER MORNING
in Pitts-
burgh, and rain pelts Barron as he does a
12-km workout on the same road where
he was mocked as a kid. The 19-year-old
doesn’t break a sweat as he clocks eight-
minute miles, a deliberately slow pace
for someone whose best mile is a blazing
6:03.48, the national high school record he
set in 2010. But he’s fast enough today that
he could be mistaken for a jogger.
The 6-foot-3 athletewalks fluidlydespite
adhering to his sport’s deceptively difficult
rules: The knee of the leading leg must be
straight at the point of contact, and one
foot must always be on the ground. A
racewalker who is cited for three “li ing”
violations faces the indignity of being
ejected by the chief judge hoisting a red
stop sign paddle. A marathoner can break
stride without scrutiny, but a racewalker
has to remain a entive to form just to stay
inthe race. Luckily, that comes easily toBar-
ron, nowa freshmanat ColoradoCollege. “I
find the motion very natural,” he says in a
voice so so it barely rises above awhisper.
That isn’t to sayhe hasn’t facedhis share
of physical struggles. Barron first tried
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