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As It Happens

Women race walkers win right to compete in 50 km IAAF events

Plenty of steps in her spring. American race walker Erin Taylor-Talcott wins her battle to allow women to compete in 50 km races, and that's not the only big development she's taking in stride.
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U.S. race walker, Erin Taylor-Talcott, has won her fight to allow women to compete in 50 km IAAF events. (Erin Taylor-Talcott)
As It Happens5:40Women race walkers win right to compete in 50 km IAAF events

One of the final gender barriers in international organized sporting events has been broken.

This week, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced that women will now be permitted to compete in 50 km race walking events. Up until this week, women could only compete in the 20 km event, with the longer race being reserved for male competitors.

"It's just unbelievable and I'm on cloud 9,000 right now," Erin Taylor-Talcott tells As it Happens guest-host Laura Lynch.

For a long time, in the Olympics, women only did up to the 800m, anything longer and they were afraid our uteruses would fall out.- US race walker, Erin Taylor-Talcott

Taylor-Talcott had filed a petition to allow women to compete in the event, and it's a battle she's been waging for the past several years.

So why hasn't the 50 km race been open to women until this week?

"You know, it's a really interesting question that I've never gotten a great answer to," says Taylor-Talcott. "I think it started out with, at first, the belief that women couldn't do endurance events."

Taylor-Talcott says that as the stigma was removed and other events were opened to women, including the marathon, steeplechase and the pole vault, it became more apparent that the 50 km race walk should also be opened to women.

There are no physical issues that impede women from competing in the event, and Taylor-Talcott points out that women tend to be stronger in endurance events.

American race walker Erin Taylor-Talcott will compete in the 50 km event at the IAAF World Race Walk Team Championships in Rome in May, 2016. (Erin Taylor-Talcott)

The 50 km race walk will now be gender blind, meaning both men and women may compete against each other in the same race.

Taylor-Talcott has been named to Team USA's 50 km race walking team, which until this week was known as the Men's 50 km team. She'll be competing at the IAAF World Race Walk Team Championships in Rome in May.

When asked how she expects to place in the event, Taylor-Talcott admits that she does not expect to win because there will be more experienced male walkers in the race. She says that just being there will feel like she's won.

"I'm going to feel like the whole race is my victory lap."

For more on Erin Taylor-Talcott's story, take a listen to our full interview.

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