In 2016, Joseph Rayner & Juan Gonzalez PhD of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley completed a study on the Psychological Factors of Burnout in Former/Retired Elite-Level Race Walkers in the United States. Recent events in the professional end of the sport, namely World Athletics removing the 50 km event from the Olympics and World Championships program and replacing it with a 35 km event in World Championships but offering no replacement in the Olympics at this point, created a discussion as to why athletes are leaving Race Walking in general. I’ve included the original published version below and the version that appeared in Track Coach.
Original Study
Track Coach version
