MESDAMES ET MESSIEURS, check out Paris tour books handily available at kiosks in every arrondissement of the French capital, and they’ll tell you that the Trocadero area — at the base of the Eiffel Tower and its Champ-de-Mars and Palais de Chaillot — is “a great place for exploring and relaxing on a lazy day.”
But don’t tell that to Ecuador’s Daniel Pintado, who’ll never consider racewalking 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) at 6:30ish mile pace as a great way of exploring and relaxing on a lazy day.
Wearing his age, 29, as his bib number, Pintado brought great joy to Cuenca (his hometown), Quito, Guayaquil — and maybe even to the Galapagos. His late rush carried him to a 1:18:55 victory in the first event of the athletics phase of the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad.
The muggy-day race started a half-hour late (8 am) once threatened thunderstorms abated. It was the 18th edition of the Olympic 20K and no one has ever won two straight.
Chased by 48 over the 20 circuits of the L-shaped loop back and forth over the Ponte DeLeon, often with tourist “bateaux mouches” passing underneath, the 5-6 (1.68) Pintado all at once brought the gold back to the nation oft-famed for its silver riches.
Just once before had an Ecuadorian athlete struck gold at the Games, any sport, any discipline, and that was Jefferson Pérez’s 1:20:07 in this same event at Atlanta in 1996.
Pintado called the final meters of the race “insane,” saying, “When I realized I was completely alone and seeing the finish line, I just kept thinking, ‘I’m the Olympic champion, it’s me.’ I have competed in three Olympic Games (placing 37th in 2016 and 20th in 2021) and this was a dream come true.”
He did it for his fellow Ecuadorians— and his family, carrying photos of son Nicolas and daughter Montserrath in his waistband: “They were with me throughout the race.”
Scenic as the storied backdrops surely were, this was no walk in the park. Brazil’s Caio Bonfim, who did much of the early pace-walking, claimed 2nd in 1:19:09 and thus marked the first 1–2 finish for South America.
Budapest 2023 world champion Álvaro Martin of Spain took the bronze in 1:19:11. And right on his heels, just a second behind, was 2021 Oly champion Massimo Stano of Italy.
Jun Zhang of China sped to an early lead with a 20:19 opening…
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