Race walkers protest against the "ongoing TikTokification" of the Olympic Games

IOC announced on Wednesday the full event programme for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles 2028. There will be 351 medals, 22 more than at Paris 2024, and the inclusion of five new sports: baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash. But with the added number of disciplines, others had to be cut, and that includes the discontinuation of the marathon race walk mixed relay, after debuting in Paris.

That has caused indignation in various athletes, coaches and also the Royal Spanish Federation of Athletics (RFEA), that said to news agency EFE that "this measure does not favour the universality of athletics, which already had a discipline like race walking whose medals have been won by countries such as Ecuador, Mexico, Australia, Brazil, Guatemala, China, Japan, Italy, Poland, and Spain".

One of the athletes in this sport, Paul McGrath, commented the news and offered his view as to why this happened: "At this rate, there will only be Olympic events that last 60 minutes and can be watched in their entirety on TikTok".

McGrath described it as a disrespect for race walking, a sport that has gradually lost representation at the Olympic Games. His feeling is shared by Canadian race walker Evan Dunfee, who also commented of the "ongoing TikTokification of the Games".Relevo also quotes coach José Antonio Quintana, who laments that race walk was "one of the disciplines with the most widely distributed medals around the world".

Dunfee won Bronze in Tokyo 2020 in 50 km walk, a medal (men only) that was discontinued that year. McGrath, of Spanish mother and Scottish father, represented Spain in Paris and won Bronze in 20 km walk, the only racewalk category that will remain in Los Angeles 2028, although instead it will be Half-Marathon Race Walk (men and women). Instead, a new 4x100m mixed relay race (runners) will debut in Los Angeles 2028, which will likely be dominated by the United States, Australia or Jamaica (as said by the Olympic website itself).