Rafał’s third Olympics are already behind him. On August 19, he stood at the starting line of the 50 km race walk.

He had been preparing for this moment for four years. Over the last two years we have supported his efforts. In March, in Dudnice, Rafał won his place in the Olympic team. There were several other candidates fighting for this privilege, all successful and hard working athletes. Rafał was motivated and well prepared. He won a bronze medal in the Polish Senior Championships which turned out to be his ticket to the Games.

Rafał’s third Olympics are already behind him. On August 19 he stood at the start of the 50 km race walk. He had been preparing for this moment for four years. Over the last two years we supported his efforts. In March, in Dudnice, Rafał won his place in the Olympic team. There were several other candidates fighting for this privilege, all successful and hard working athletes. Rafał was motivated and well prepared. He won a bronze medal in the Polish Senior Championships which turned out to be his ticket to the Games.

- At the starting line in Rio I stood quietly. I moved quietly. I knew what price I could pay for breaking forward too quickly. There’s no place for mistakes during the 50km race walk. It’s not some 100m distance that can be run every day. The competition, in fact, only began after the 30th kilometer. Temperature started to rise and the humidity was around 70-80%. It was time to speed up and start to roll. I saw a lot of thing happening on the way. Some of the racewalkers resigned. With every kilometer I tried to speed up a little bit, I passed other competitors, but it was enough only for a 24th-place finish (or maybe it’s not that bad?).

Am I happy?

I am pleased, especially with the technique. I haven’t received any warnings. I can see that working on the technique yielded results. I also realized how strong I am mentally. When other racewalkers decided to give up, I kept on pushing forward and knew that I’d finish this race.

What’s missing and needs to be improved? The time of 3:55:51 is nothing special and it’s not even my life’s record.

Speed, that’s what was missing and it was crucial in this race.

However, Rafał doesn’t intend to put his shoes aside just yet. He has the potential and needs a success. He was eighth in Beijing. Now he finished twenty-fourth. It is also a big success. Being twenty-fourth in the world in anything is definately a success.

Rafał is 35 years old now but it’s not the end of a career for a racewalker. Olympics in Tokyo are within his reach. Fingers crossed!