His Olympic event was cut, but he’s finding a new way to compete in Paris

Evan Dunfee won’t get a chance to upgrade the bronze medal he won at the Olympics in 2021. 

Dunfee came in third in the 50km race walk in Tokyo. But the event, which had been in the Olympics since 1932, has been dropped by the International Olympic Committee. 

The Olympic committee said it cancelled the event because it didn’t fit with the IOC’s mission of gender equality, given there is no equivalent event for women. Instead, the IOC and World Athletics announced a new, mixed event. 

But Dunfee says that reasoning is “a cop-out.”

“We’d been pushing for years for a women’s 50k… We should’ve had a women’s 50k at the Olympics. That should have been the solution,” the athlete from Richmond, B.C., told The Current host Matt Galloway. 

“If that was the only issue with it, the IOC easily could have solved that.”

According to an emailed response from the IOC, the 50km men’s event was replaced with the women’s event in order to create a balance of men’s and women’s events, while not increasing the size of the Olympic Games.

“In order to achieve full gender parity without being able to increase the number of events, the IOC [Executive Board] offered World Athletics the opportunity to replace the men’s 50km race walk event with a new mixed-gender event,” said the IOC in an email. 

In June 2023, the IOC confirmed the new event would be a mixed-gender team race walk. 

Noel Paine, an amateur race walker from Ontario who runs the podcast and Youtube channel Talking Racewalking, says the loss of the 50km event will hurt race walking as a sport. 

“It was a big blow for a sport that really has its history in endurance. It’s not a short distance event. It never has been,” said Paine. “It would be like taking the marathon away from runners. It leaves a gap.”

Opportunity for all to watch

Dunfee has competed in two Olympics so far. In 2016 he was in the bronze medal position near the end of the 50km race when he was bumped by Japan’s Hirooki Arai, breaking his stride and focus.

But in 2021, at the delayed Tokyo Olympics, Dunfee put that behind him and raced to a bronze medal finish in the same event. And one of the things the 33-year-old said he loves about his sport is that anyone can watch those exciting moments.

“Not everyone can afford to go watch Usain Bolt run the 100 metre final,” said Dunfee. “We provide an opportunity for anyone to rock up on the side of the road and be five feet away from athletes performing their physical best. And I think there’s an inspiration in that.” 

WATCH | Evan Dunfee on the unique challenges of race walking:

Evan Dunfee: The unique challenges of race walking and getting bumped out of medal in Rio

Canadian race walker Evan Dunfee talks to Andrew Chang about the unique challenges of his sport, the road to the Tokyo Games and the bump that cost him a medal in Rio.

And Dunfee believes that’s part of the reason why his event was cut from the Olympic Games.

“My naive opinion of it is that they just can’t make money off of us,” said Dunfee. 

“The broadcast data that we’ve been able to see that doesn’t become public tells us that it’s not because people weren’t watching it. So then you start to question those decisions and wonder, you know, if there’s deeper reasons behind these things.”

The IOC didn’t respond to questions about whether money was a factor in the decision.  

A new opportunity

Paine says that without the 50km distance in the Olympics, that event will likely fall off across all international competitions.

“The Olympics drives everything else. So without funding for that event, athletes aren’t going to train for it … that event is just going to kind of disappear, which is a huge loss for the sport,” said Paine.

Dunfee isn’t letting the loss of the 50km event keep him from competing. He will put his best foot forward — while keeping the other on the ground as the rules stipulate — in the 20km race walk. He will also team up with Olivia Lundman in the new mixed event.

Dunfee and the 21-year-old from Nanaimo, B.C., will race a total of 42.195km, with each doing two legs of a little more than 10km each. 

It’s been a new journey for Dunfee. Not only will he be competing in Paris, but coaching his new teammate, too. 

“I’m really looking forward to that opportunity, getting her that Olympic experience at such a young age,” said Dunfee.

And it’s not all about the results for Dunfee. 

“My goal is still, I want to win, I want to win gold. I want to win a medal… But my success isn’t determined by that outcome. My success will be determined by, if I gave myself every chance to achieve that goal.”