WITH AN ESTIMATED 20 MILLION PARTICIPANTS SINCE 2010, TRAIL RUNNING HAS BECOME ONE OF THE WORLD’S FASTEST GROWING SPORTS (ACCORDING TO INTERNATIONAL TRACK AND FIELD FEDERATION). WITH THE BASIC REQUIREMENTS ONLY BEING A PAIR OF SHOES AND HAVING THE GREAT OUTDOORS SOMEWHERE CLOSE BY, THERE ARE NOW MORE THAN 25,000 RACES ACROSS 195 COUNTRIES WITH NEARLY 2 MILLION REGISTERED COMPETITORS.
SO WITH THE NUMBERS SO LARGE, ISN’T IT TIME WE GET THE SPORT RECOGNISED AT AN OLYMPIC LEVEL? KATE DZIENIS DELVES INTO THE POTENTIAL OF INTRODUCING TRAIL RUNNING TO THE OLYMPICS AND THE PARALYMPICS, AND DISCOVERS A PUSH HAS JUST STARTED, HARD AND FAST, TO GET THE SPORT INTO THE 2032 BRISBANE GAMES.
On April 10, way back when in 1896, a group of 17 male runners gathered at the start line of the first modern Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece to run 24.8mi, or 39.9km, to the Panathenaic Stadium.
After doing a bit of research, I had to chuckle to myself when I’d learnt that 3rd Place finisher Spyridon Belokas was disqualified for ‘hitching a ride in a carriage along part of the race course’, and the winner – a Greek man by the name of
