[Reporter] Evan Dunfee, not a household name
but five years ago in Rio
he was all any Canadian could talk about.
[Announcer] And Dunfee has now made a move
and oh, a little bump between the two.
Almost a body check.
[Reporter] That bump
with Dunfee on the verge of a bronze medal
was devastating.
And the drama was just beginning.
[Announcer] Dunfee back in fourth overall.
[Reporter] Canada challenged the bump and won.
Dunfee would take bronze
but Japan appealed
and incredibly, Dunfee was bumped again
down to fourth place.
Hirooki and I getting tangled up
was completely incidental and unintentional.
[Reporter] He could have kept fighting
but it wasn't how he wanted to win.
And besides
there are entirely new battles to fight today
in a sport, perpetually in search of the respect it deserves.
So we sat down to talk about what it takes
to be the best
and why Tokyo may present the toughest challenge yet
in keeping Dunfee's race walking dream alive
Evan, very nice to meet you here.
Yes I'm glad to be here.
OK, so let's get right down to basics here
race walking
I feel like this must be one of the most
under appreciated Olympic sports.
Mostly because people don't really have a grasp of
of what's involved
and why it's impressive.
So can you give me the essence of race walking?
For sure, you know I like to describe race walking
simply as running with rules.
We go incredibly long distances.
We go further than a marathon.
So 50k is eight kilometres further than marathon.
And we have to do that while maintaining
this technique
and these rules.
[Reporter] Rules like you have to be walking at all times.
There are specifics
right down to how straight your leading leg has to be
and of course
one foot on the ground at all times
but it's no less gruelling.
I can get my heart rate up to 195 beats a minute
through race walking.
So you still work just as hard.
Just because you're confined by
by the technical requirements
you go a little bit slower than you would
if you were just running.
[Reporter] It would be tempting to think of race walking as
as mainly a solo sport
but I think a lot of people would be surprised to know
just how much interplay there is
between athletes.
[Announcer] Dunfee is really hitting his stride
in sensational fashion here.
[Reporter] I was in Rio
and I remember your 50k race
uh that year very well
but I was surprised to learn some of the details
that happened before
that now infamous bump, right.
That even when you were passing your Japanese rival
there were some mind games going on.
I had caught up to uh that third place athlete
Hirooki Arai from Japan
and he was really suffering
and I knew that OK
like I want to go flying past him
like I want him to
I want him to like feel me go by him
feel the wind as I pass him
and unfortunately when you're three hours and 38 minutes into a race
and neither of you can walk in a straight line
it wasn't the the best tactic
but you know, the rest is a little bit of history.
[Reporter] So speaking of learning from that history
tactically when you look back at that
is there anything instructive about that moment?
Absolutely.
So funnily enough uh
in 2019, at our world championships in Doha
the exact same thing.
So I caught up to the third place athlete
and this time
gave that athlete a wide berth
and just went flying right by
and came home to that bronze medal.
[Announcer] Bonze medalist representing Canada
Evan Dunfee.
[Reporter] So let me ask you this then.
What should we, as Canadians
expect from you, Evan Dunfee, in Tokyo?
Well, I guess, in Sapporo
you know, I'd hope the Canadians would expect
to see me
leave it all in the line.
[Reporter] That distinction is an important one.
Dunfee's race will be nowhere near Tokyo.
It's been moved about eight hours north by train
to cooler weather.
And that's something that
that kind of ticks you off right?
Yeah, my correction was mostly tongue-in-cheek
because it is something that bugs me.
Having my event be taken away from Tokyo
where it's the citizens of Tokyo
who are paying billions and billions of dollars
for this thing.
Having these five events
the three race walks and the two marathons
moved 800 kilometres north
where they can't be a part of that
uh it really ticks me off.
The nature of this pandemic
dramatically changes the equation
no matter how you look at it.
Even if the race were to happen in Tokyo
the kind of thing that you're imagining
and that we've seen in previous Olympics
may not have happened anyway, right.
No fans in the streets.
You're absolutely right is that
we're playing by a whole different set of rules this time
and even if we were in Tokyo
it's more than likely that it would be a closed event
and not accessible to the masses anyways
and that's really hard to reckon with for me
and especially with you look at the polls
coming up from Tokyo
and how the majority of the population
doesn't want us there.
So it is really
it's a really tough thing that I reckon with
in terms of kind of being an intruder
almost in Tokyo
and not being wanted there.
[Reporter] Not a good feeling
when you're just months away from hopping on a nearly
7,000 kilometre flight
but there's more
the IOC has decided this will be the last we see of Dunfee's best event
the 50k
It's cutting it from the program
because there's no women's version of it
but skeptics like Dunfee
think there's more to it.
So the ICO have decided that 50k isn't worth keeping around.
It's too long.
Part of me thinks they don't like that it's a free event
because they can't make money off of it.
But do you feel conflicted then as well
about the Olympics writ large
and maybe particularly
the people who run them?
Yeah, I mean absolutely.
Seeing the impact the Olympic Games have
it's not all good.
It's, you know, I think
the Olympic Games do create a ton of value
but at the same time
um you know
this last year has been a moment for me to really reflect
on the negative impacts the Olympics have
on marginalized communities.
On, you know, just the the cost
that's left behind.
Something needs to change
and that's another thing that I grapple with.
Right because you're still going right
to these Olympics
but I'm listening to the words that you're saying
and I'm wondering
are you grappling with
the idea of whether you continue
to be part of the Olympic movement
in subsequent editions of the Summer Games.
Purely selfishly no
um
and I have to admit that it is a purely selfish thing.
Like this is what I've dreamt of since I was 10 years old.
I want to be the best in the world
at uh you know
at this admittedly niched, strange event
but it's the thing that I've dedicated my life to
and um I want to continue to pursue that
and see just how good I can be.
So from that perspective
um you know
I'm pretty hell-bent on on going.
I do wonder what a more positive
equitable Olympics could look like in the future.
Evan Dunfee, thank you so much for your time
Yeah, thanks for having me on.
Really appreciate it