Olympic race walking is oddly enthralling

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When I flipped to the Olympics Friday morning and saw the 50km race walk was on, I had a lot of questions.

Why is this a thing? Why don’t they just run? Who came up with this event? Why do they walk like that? Why do they look like they have to pee? How does one get involved in the sport?

Beyond that, I was mostly just intrigued, perplexed and oddly captivated by the event. As it turns out, others were, too.

And this is all meant as no disrespect to these athletes. 50 kilometers (31+ miles) is a long way! I bet I couldn’t walk 10 miles without some sort of medical assistance (though it looks like French racer Yohann Diniz needed a different kind of assistance). This sport, especially in the 50km race, requires a ton of endurance and mental toughness to abide by the stringent rules for such a long (3+ hours) race.

Racers must maintain contact with the ground at all times. On top of that, per the USATF, the racer’s “leading leg” must be “straightened as the foot makes contact with the ground” and “remain straightened until the leg passes under the body.”

That’s why their technique looks so odd. And there are judges, too, to make sure the rules are followed. During Friday morning’s race, there were quite a few disqualifications. NBC’s broadcast showed the following rules:

• A yellow paddle is issued as a warning for poor technique

• Failure to comply can result in a red card

• Red cards from three different judges result in disqualification

And on top of that, a race walker can “be disqualified by the Chief Judge without prior warnings” in the final 100 meters of the race. How about that for drama?

Though I’d imagine races are in the morning because of cooler temperatures, we need race walking in primetime, people! C’mon, television executives! Get it done.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!

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