First of all, today is World Nature Conservation Day, it was started more than 25 years ago with the idea of raising awareness about the impact that humans have on the environment, while encouraging people to make a difference. A concern that goes back to the early 20th century, when US president Theodore Roosevelt brought nature conservation on the political agenda in 1901, and eventually leading to the establishment global Union for Nature Conservation in 1948. From reducing consumption and waste, from leaving a lighter carbon footprint to planting trees for reforestation, this day promotes tons of activities that can be done – each and every day – to celebrate the beauty of the world and protect it for the future. And walking is an important ingredient of a healthier and greener planet.

As old as ecological concerns are the Olympics, and even older is walking as an athletic sport, although the latter may seem contradictory.
In the middle of the 19th century the sport of walking, called pedestrianism, had a frenzy of interest, outshining football or soccer, and gathering crowds of then thousand people, watching the moustachioed athletes in tight leggings and tiny shorts.
It went as hard as it gets, with scandals, doping, cheating and prize money of 600.000 euros in today's value for the winning walkers. Walking athletes were the very first international celebrity sportsmen with an entourage of their own dieticians, doctors, chefs, dedicated sports masseurs and trainers – who often recommended that they drank champagne as they went. There were corporate sponsorships. There were snacks, including roasted chestnuts and pickled eggs – and cups of beer. There was a full military band. Extravagant bets were made. The crowd was littered with flags, reporters and waving handkerchiefs, at Great Six Days Races. An image that looks much like the Olympics of today.
The sport went into decline after the invention of the bicycle in the late 19th century. Pedestrianism did not disappear altogether, of course. Eventually the sport evolved into racewalking, still an Olympic discipline today. In the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris there is a 20 km individual walking race and an all-new relay walk race consisting of a female walker and a male walker who will take it in turns to cover the marathon distance of 42.195 kms. On Thursday 1 August and Wednesday 7 August, at the Eiffel Tower, exactly 100 years after the surrealists made their first artistic walks in 1924 around Paris, experimenting with hypnosis via walking with disorienting loss of control and lack of itinerary. The surrealists may have been startled and amused by the Olympic athletes of today, but the inspiration of champagne as a booster for the early walking racers may have been something embraced with enthusiasm by the walking art party in 1924, as it may be by walking artists today.

Cheers!

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