RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – For decades, race walking and all its straight-legged, hip-swaying awkwardness has largely been ignored, derided and sometimes ridiculed by those unfamiliar with the inner workings of the sport.
To the Russians, it was never a joke.
Aware of the nine Olympic medals available – the first three of the Rio Games are up for grabs Friday in the 20K men’s walk – Russia ramped up a doping machine that produced champion race walkers, year after year. That machine won 11 medals in the past five games. It worked so well, in fact, that race walking became the epicenter of the doping scandal that engulfed the country’s entire sports program and led to the ouster of the track team from this year’s Olympics.
“I wasn’t surprised,” retired American race walker Curt Clausen said of the revelations about Russian race walking that have surfaced over the past two years. “I was more glad somebody is finally shining some light on the issue.”
Clausen is 48 now and keeps his hand in the game as a member of the USA Track and Field board of directors. At his house in Wisconsin is a replica of the bronze medal he won at the 1999 world championships. The duplicate medal – he never got the original – was awarded to him two years after the race, when the Russian winner, German Skurygin, was disqualified for doping. Clausen calls it “my big penny, the validation for my career.”