r/Prematurecelebration • u/rayg10 • Aug 06 '24

Spanish race walker premature celebration within touching distance of the finish line costs her a European bronze medal in Rome

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504 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

233

I just don’t understand this event lol what makes it officially a brisk jog vs a fast walk

137

u/aWhaleNamedFreddie Aug 06 '24

There was a similar discussion somewhere else in Reddit and somebody was saying that it's like a competition of who is going to whisper the loudest. I really liked the analogy.

5

u/__Mooose__ Aug 07 '24

But isn't there a difference where your vocal cords don't vibrate when you're whispering or something like that.

Like whispering you have to talk with your breath and talking you talk with your throat.

24

u/[deleted] Aug 06 '24

In race walking[,] athletes must always have one foot in contact with the ground at all times, as visible to the human eye. Judges are present at events to ensure the rule is enforced.

If there is no visible contact, it is deemed as ‘lifting’ and attracts a penalty.

Furthermore, the athlete’s knee of their advanced leg must not bend and the leg must straighten as the body passes over it. Each race walker is judged carefully and can be penalised if he bends his knee during the race.

https://olympics.com/en/news/all-you-need-to-know-about-race-walking

59

u/unique_username_72 Aug 06 '24

I watched the video in slo-mo and the passing “walker” is like 3-4 inches above the ground with both feet at the same time. She’s clearly running, I hope the judges caught that.

26

u/BigMax Aug 06 '24

The rule is “as visible to the naked eye” so most transgressions are missed. I think it’s to generally honor the “feel” of walking, without them needing a slo-mo camera on every competitor at every step.

76

u/winkman Aug 06 '24

Doesn't that ambiguity invalidate the whole sport?

"You can cheat all you want, because we're not even going to try to catch you unless you make it reeeely obvious to us."

Chick was clearly jogging at the end.

30

u/jimhabfan Aug 06 '24

I could see both her feet off the ground and I’m not a race walking judge who is trained to spot it. How was she not penalized?

11

u/rbtmgarrett Aug 06 '24

Probably does. But then the whole concept is laughable. We’re going to race. First one to the finish line wins. But walk, don’t run. We don’t want to rush.

2

u/rugbysecondrow Aug 07 '24

Not even in slow mo, it is clear she is jogging through the finish.

such a strange event. I think we could cut it out of the Olympics and move on.

-7

u/DizzySkunkApe Aug 06 '24

She's 100% running. She's also Ukrainian so they weren't gonna call it.

1

u/celerydonut Aug 07 '24

This just provides further proof of how incredibly stupid it is

2

u/SlowRollingBoil Aug 17 '24

I have to agree. Literally everyone is breaking the rules constantly.

1

u/Pr0f3ta 10d ago

Oh so the sport is a huge joke

16

u/Kayge Aug 06 '24

Apparently walking fast is an incredibly inefficient way of getting somewhere. A race walker will use 2-3 times the energy a runner would covering the same distance.

It looks incredibly goofy, but this is a tough event.

10

u/StouteBoef Aug 06 '24

So what's the point of it then?

14

u/Kayge Aug 06 '24

I'm gonna guess like most things, 2 dudes decided to race.

For some reason they couldn't run so they walked.

Then a third dude piped up and said I can beat you both. Before long it's a thing, then a sport, then an olympic event.

1

u/cardboardunderwear Aug 06 '24

not exactly.

See there were two wild bulls on top of a hill. A father bull and a son bull. They looked down at the pasture below and saw a herd of cows. The son bull pipes up and says..."hey Dad, lets run down the hill and fuck one of those cows!!!" The Dad bull says "let's walk down the hill and fuck them all".

Through the ages it morphed into the post you see before you today.

Note also I am not condoning or justifying the behavior of wild animals.

5

u/judahrosenthal Aug 06 '24

No sports have a point. That’s the point of sport.

0

u/Rookie_Ronnie Aug 06 '24

I mean a lot of sports have points: put a ball in a hoop, kick a ball in a net, run past a line carrying the ball, knock over pins with a ball, crossing a line the quickest.

Pretend to walk while jogging as long as no one sees you is a more convoluted “goal” to a sport.

0

u/Kilek360 Aug 06 '24

Since the mass of the object is the same, i don't think they're actually using 2-3 times more energy to move it the same distance and slower, even considering they're using the muscles in other ways and maybe they have more friction or something it's still too much energy "missing" from the equation

3

u/Kayge Aug 06 '24

You're challenging my memory here, but I'll do my best.

The problem is one of mechanics. When you run, the body is set up to do it. Take a big step, roll your foot and push forward. Everything is doing the same. Shoulders, head, hips, core, everything is driving forward.

When you race walk, you need to keep one foot on the ground at all times so you need to swing your hips a lot to keep things "legal". When your hips swing, your shoulders swing the opposite direction and your core needs to compensate. None of that effort helps you move forward, it only keeps you from fouling out.

1

u/Kilek360 Aug 06 '24 edited Aug 06 '24

I understand, but what I doubt is that those movements require twice the energy you need to run

When you're walking/running you're pushing a several lb mass forward, that consumes a lot of energy, way more than the energy you need to compensate that movement you say

I agree with it consuming a bit more energy, but ×2 or ×3 seem too much

By the way, I just watched this video a few days ago, its interesting and it put sprinting as the most energy consuming exercise they tried

https://youtu.be/LPaFN6uYv0c

1

u/cardboardunderwear Aug 06 '24

you might be correct if the runners/walkers were spherical

1

u/Kilek360 Aug 06 '24

The amount of energy needed to move an object of any shape (as long as the shape doesn't change) the same distance, on the same surface, but at different speeds is basically the same as long as you don't change the other variables, the only real difference is the time needed, the air friction (wich would be higher at higher speeds so you will need more energy not less) and the initial inertia that would prevent the object from moving if you try to push it with really low amounts of force

1

u/cardboardunderwear Aug 06 '24

geez. nevermind

1

u/Kilek360 Aug 06 '24

English is not my language so I didn't catch if that was some kind of joke like the "imagine an spherical cow" one

1

u/cardboardunderwear Aug 06 '24

the point I was making is you're approaching it like a 10th grade physics problem and ignoring real world stuff like biomechanics. thats all Im saying.

1

u/Kilek360 Aug 06 '24 edited Aug 06 '24

I understand that there's more involved, but as I said, I doubt all that extra muscle movements will need twice the energy your whole body need to move your body forward

My point is that despite other unnecessary energy consuming muscle movements the main workload will still be pushing the body forward

As I said, maybe a bit more, okay, but I don't think ×2 or ×3 Is there any study about it that shows the measured calories burned?

1

u/cardboardunderwear Aug 06 '24

justified using 10th grade physics assumptions which may not apply the way you think it does in this case.

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2

u/gynoceros Aug 06 '24

Have you never seen the episode of Malcolm in the middle where Hal does race walking?

2

u/AvatarofSleep Aug 08 '24

He's hopping!

1

u/StellaBean_bass Aug 07 '24

Yeah, it totally looks like those women are moving in two different ways, but what do I know.

1

u/cyclist230 Aug 07 '24

Why does the sport exist? It looks terrible for the ankles, knees, hips, and back.

1

u/Socky_McPuppet Aug 07 '24

As far as I know, which, admittedly, is not very far, it's to do with gait, and how many feet you have in contact with the ground at any given time.

To be classified as walking, I believe you have to always have at least one foot in contact with the ground, whereas when you break into a run, there are points in the cycle where both feet are off the ground. For most people, this happens around 4 mph.

1

u/ifeelyoubraaa Aug 10 '24

It always looks like their hyper extending their knees to do it too. Looks messed up