The Phoenix is a mythological bird that is reborn from its ashes and for this reason, also symbolizes the power of resilience, or the ability to cope in a positive manner to difficulty. In this dramatic moment for our discipline, can emerge a great unity of purpose, we can not miss this opportunity. Already the numerous letters and proposals that we have sent to the IAAF RWC (and which they have ignored) are the basis for the future of racewalking.
We must not think about changing racewalking, but about how to spread in all the world what is racewalking, with a real project based on communication an promotion. We can all contribute, the revolution starts from the bottom, from the sports clubs, from the comparison of the experiences already made, from the analysis of the problems. We must join to this initiative from all over the world, only those who experience racewalking can really help it grow.
If you are a club or a racewalkers association, if you are a coach, athlete or judge tired of the old system, immediately join this project, we will develop it together. If you want join Phoenix write email to info@savetheracewalking.org also with your proposals and experiences.
PHOENIX PROJECT
DRAFT PROGRAM
- The first rule is defend racewalking, respect racewalking history, so defend 20Km and 50Km for men and women.
- The second rule is to promote racewalking, not to upset it
- The third rule is the sharing, so the actions and steps of this project are made public and shared
- Individuals or even sports clubs and racewalkers associations can join
- Federations can also join, but remembering that they should not impose any decision
Information and data collection
We will collect all the experiences already used and tested, we will collect new proposals. A census of the racewalkers will be made to understand which countries are in “good health” and which are in difficulty. We will also collect feedback from each participant who will tell us what problems are there in racewalking (not only technical but also organizational, economic, logistical and promotional)
Opinions collection – market research
We will collect opinions about racewalking problems (not only technical but also organizational, economic, logistical and promotional) initially through surveys, which however will also be done on the general population and not only on people in the sector. Note that the surveys will not be binding on the decisions but will serve to understand, for example, the knowledge of racewalking among ordinary people or the appreciation of some rules among younger athletes
Promotional media plan and cultural dissemination plan
of the fundamentals of racewalking to general population
In this we can be helped by the internet, but we must coordinate in all countries. The information to be disseminated must be agreed, multilingual (not just English and French) in order to reach more people in the world. The basic information must be unique, must have a simple and immediate format to understand, we need to design content that is accessible and easy to understand. Then will also move on to the more detailed topics. All our productions will have to have the same brand, but not for the profit, but only to make us uniquely identifiable all over the world as an international group of racewalking development
Dissemination on social media
Creation of different pages on social media to reach the different public of kids, young people, lovers of professional racewalkers and master athletes.
Help little racewalking countries
There are many countries where the racewalking is not widespread, we must make ourselves available and help the few people in countries with difficulties working on racewalking. This will be a help for them but also a support for the entire worldwide movement of racewalking
Production of study material and knowledge of racewalking for teachers of sport education
Teachers are our “hook” to get in touch with school pupils. Often these sports education teachers are interested in “easier” sports, so we need to provide them with our coaches and informative material that is more captivating and easy to understand, different from the biomechanical books and training schedules. Here we must first spread racewalking. An example here: Download Racewalking Multimedia manual (italian language)
Direct promotion in schools involving the pupils in the preparation and finalization of a team racewalking competition
Relay Racewalking Trophy for kids aged 10 to 12 years. It is a competition that takes place on the 400m track, teams of four elements, two males and two females, 4x400mt. Qualifications and national final on the world day of racewalking. It will establish the team of kids champion of the world by comparing the times of the whole world
Institution of the World Day of racewalking
A day of competitions and events at the same time (reasonably taking into account the time zones of each area) all over the world, in order to unite all the athletes and the fans, from all over the world.
work in progress…