Walking is one way to get to Olympics
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Sports broadcaster Bob Costas once said staging a race to see who could walk the fastest was akin to a loudest whisperer contest. Indeed, of the many Olympic track events, race walking perhaps gets the least respect among American sports fans.
Even U.S. Olympic race walker and returned missionary John Nunn had to warm to the sport. His parents introduced him to race walking when he was 6, "but I didn't really enjoy it — it wasn't a lot of fun."
Still, if you're ever tempted to giggle at grown men and women in track shorts shuffling furiously toward the finish line, try this: lace up your running shoes, then go outside and try to walk a mile (don't run — remember, always keep one foot on the ground) in five minutes and 49 seconds. That's Brother Nunn's American record in the race walk mile.
Brother Nunn, 26, was a traditional cross country athlete in high school. His 4:34 mark in the mile was solid, but not speedy enough to land a college scholarship as a runner. The track coach at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside offered him a spot on his team — as a race walker. Young John accepted, with a few conditions.
"I told (the coach) that I didn't work out on Sundays and that I'd be leaving to go on a mission," said Brother Nunn, a lifelong member. True to his word, he left college in 1997 to serve in the Nevada Las Vegas Mission.
The Church, he said, "has been a major factor in my life."
He began training to become an elite race walker almost immediately after completing his mission. Along the way he enlisted in the U.S. Army (he's part of the military's World Class Athlete Program) and married Leah Ettinger. "My wife has been the biggest assest to me," he said.
The Nunns belong to the Chula Vista 2nd Ward, Chula Vista California Stake, and have an infant daughter, Ella.
A member of his ward's activity committee, Brother Nunn recently qualified for the U.S. Olympic team after placing second in the national 20-kilometer race walk contest. His medal chances in a sport traditionally dominated by Europeans and Latin Americans are slim. Still, he hopes to finish near the top of the field in Athens.
Top race walkers can compete into their mid-30s, but the 2004 Games will likely be Brother Nunn's only Olympic appearance. "This is not something I want to do for another 10 or 11 years." Instead, he plans to re-enlist in the Army, maybe become an officer and one day become a dentist.
E-mail to: jswensen@desnews.com
