Racewalking Stamps Around the World

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Racewalking has featured on many postage stamps from various countries around the world. This listing started from a series of articles I published in the Heel & Toe newsletter in 2012. It has now grown into a comprehensive catalogue that continues to grow. Special thanks to Alex Wijsman, Vic Miller and Margaret and Ian Beaumont for their expert philatelic help.

1954 - San Marino The very first stamps to feature the sport of racewalking, as far as I know, were issued by San Marino on 28 August 1954. The two, of denominations 1 Lire and 80 Lire, featured the same design but were of different colours. Given that there were also Postal Cards released, showing the Italian walker Guiseppe Dordoni and featuring this stamp (see http://www.vrwc.org.au/vrwcpostmarks.shtml), I think we can safely say that the walker on the stamp is in fact Dordoni. The stamps were released in conjunction with the sixth International Stamp Fair being held in Riccione in San Marino. This stamp fair is still held annually in Riccione - wow!
1957 - Dominican Republic : Former Olympic Champions - Ugo Frigerio In celebration of the 1956 Summer Olympic Games, held in Melbourne, the Dominican Republic issued a set of eight attractively engraved stamps on January 24, 1957. The set included five regular postage issues and three airmail stamps. The stamps honoured former Olympic greats and their nation's flag. One of the stamps features the great Italian triple Olympic gold medallist Ugo Frigerio who won the racewalks in the 1920 and 1924 Games. This is one of 3 stamps that feature Frigerio. Keep reading to find out about the other two. This Ugo Frigerio stamp was issued twice more, each time with a different overprint. The first re-issue featured the words 'Asistencia Refugiados Hungaros 1957' - Help to the people of Hungary 1957. Leaflets were also issued in the Dominican Republic at the same time. The second re-issue was in 1959 and featured the words 'III Juegos Deportivos Panamericanos' - III Pan American Games.
1957 - Dominican Republic : Former Olympic Champions - Ugo Frigerio As mentioned above, some of the 1957 Dominican Republic stamps were re-issued later in 1957 in response to the USSR's invasion of Hungary. The envelope on the left shows the re-release. The writing at the bottom says: The General Assembly ... condemns the violation of the Charter which commits the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, by depriving Hungary of its liberty and independence and the Hungarian people the exercise of their fundamental rights ... 12 December 1956
1957 - Dominican Republic : Full Set of Former Olympic Champions The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries. The full set of 8 Olympic stamps are shown on the left. The stamps honour Ugo Frigerio (1924), Paavo Nurmi (1928), Lord Burghley (1928), Mildred Didrickson (1932), Kee Chung Sohn (1936), Jesse Owens (1936), Fanny Blankers-Koen (1948), and Bob Mathias (1952). Each stamp measures 43mm x 28.5mm.
1957 - Dominican Republic : 1956 Olympic Champions - Norm Read The Dominican Republic issued a second set of Olympic stamps later in 1957. This set featured some of the 1956 Olympic Gold Medallists. This stamp featured 1956 Olympic 50km winner Norm Read of NZ. But to his left is seen British walker Don Thompson and on his right is Australian walker Ron Crawford. This was the first time an Australian walker had featured on a postage stamp.
1957 - Dominican Republic : 1956 Olympic Champions In celebration of the 1956 Summer Olympic Games, held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (equestrian events held in Stockholm Sweden), the Dominican Republic issued this attractively engraved set of eight mint stamps in 1957. The set includes five regular postage issues and three airmail stamps. The stamps honor former Olympic greats and their nation's flag: The full set included: Alain Minoun (marathon), Egil Danielsen (Javelin), Betty Cuthbert (sprints), Lars Hall (pentathlon), Adhemar de Silva (hop, step and jump), Chris Brasher (steeplechase), Bobby Morrow (sprints) and Norman Read (50km walk).
1957 - Dominican Republic : 1956 Olympic Champions This partial copy of the stamp set is signed by Norman Read so it a real collector's piece. Owner Alex Wijsman explains: This cover was signed by Norman Read when he was in Europe. Harold ven Beek fixed it for me. Norman was surprised and liked it very much. He said: "This is the first time that I have signed such a thing." A few months later he died.
1960 - Liberia : Rome Olympic Games - walking Liberia produced a very impressive set of 4 stamps to commemorate the 1960 Olympics in Rome. One of the four featured the racewalk and showed how it has come about from the simplest of human activities - walking.
1960 - Liberia : Rome Olympic Games - Full Set The full set features weight lifting, rowing, walking and javelin and show how they have all evolved from the traditional activities of the local people.
1960 - San Marino In 1960, San Marino released another racewalking stamp as part of a collection of 14 stamps celebrating the Rome Olympics of that year. I can't say that the style looks very good!
1960 - San Marino : The Full Set The full set of 14 Olympic stamps featured hockey, cycling, basketball, soccer, fencing, gymnastics, boxing, shooting, swimming, equestrian, rowing and three Track and Field disciplines - sprinting, shotput and racewalking.
1965 - Japan This 1965 Japanese stamp was one of two (the other featured a gymnast)brought out to celebrate the tenth National Athletics Meet. And is shows a racewalker! The stamp was subsequently re-released with an overprint, making the second one technically a different stamp. Vic Miller comments: "Not the face/head necessarily, Tim, but the rest of the race walker depicted on this stamp is likely yet again Volodymyr Holubnychy - note the familiar "Vladimir Golubnichy" long stride(s) and trademark hip action." I agree with Vic on this one. While it looks like a composite sketch, the lower body is definitely Golubnichy like. And the year 1965 is also from the Golubnichy era.
1968 - Luxembourg The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg,a small landlocked country bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany, is into producing fine stamps and released a series of 6 stamps to celebrate the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. The set featured soccer, swimming, cycling, fencing, running and racewalking. The racewalking stamp features three racewalkers in full swing. The stamp is actually a blue one so the colour in this print is not really true. Vic Miller comments: "It includes a depiction of Kenneth Matthews (#5) at the Tokyo Olympics. Matthews, who won a gold medal at the '64 Summer Olympics, was the dominant 20km race walker of the first half of the 1960s. I'm also confident that the race walker seen to the far right is a composite mostly of Ronald Zinn in the Tokyo Olympics 20km walk." Zinn was an American walker who also competed in the Tokyo Olympic walk. A captain in the US Infantry, he was killed in action in Vietnam the following year.
1968 - Luxembourg : The full Olympic set The full set of 6 Luxembourg Olympic stamps - featuring soccer, swimming, cycling, fencing, running and racewalking.
1971 - Yemen : Italian Gold Medallists This 1971 stamp, issued by Yemen, featured a set of 4 former Italian Olaympic Champions. The list included 1908 - E. Pocco - Greco-Roman Wrestling 1912 - Nedo Nadl - Fencing 1920 - Ugo Frigerio - Racewalk 1924 - P. Gabetti - Weight Lifting Interestingly, Frigerio's corner shows a runner! And it spells his first name as Ugon. Does this make it even more of a collector's item? This is the second of three stamps from different countries honouring Frigerio.
1971 - Ajman: 1972 Olympics The Emirate of Ajman is one of the seven current states constituting the United Arab Emirates. With an area of just 260 square kilometres, it is the smallest of the emirates by area. Ajman issued its first stamps on 20 June 1964. The shaikhdom agreed to join the United Arab Emirates on December 2, 1971. The UAE took responsibility for postal operations on 1 August 1972. Hence it issued stamps from only 1964 to 1972. This set, issued on 22 February 1971, was in honour of the 1972 Olympics in Munich and featured 16 ordinary stamps (in the form of a sheetlet), 4 airmail stamps (in the form of a sheetlet) and a miniature sheet. One of the 16 small stamps was labelled LONG WALK and features racewalking. The 16 postage stamps were as follows 1 dh. - 800 metre run 2 dh. - Boxing 3 dh. - Javelin throw 4 dh. - Pole vault 5 dh. - Hammer throw 6 dh. - Discus throw 8 dh. - Judo 10 dh. - Hurdles 12 dh. - Gymnasts 15 dh. - Swimming 20 dh. - Weightlifting 25 dh. - Fencing 30 dh. - Shot put 35 dh. - Gymnasts 40 dh. - Long walk 50 dh. - Kayaking The 4 airmail stamps were as follow 1 rl - Cycling 1 rl 50 dh. - Wrestling 2 rl - Football (Soccer) 3 rl - Equestrian The miniature sheet featured a single large denomination pole vault stamp. 15 rl - Pole vault
1972 France - Walking Tourism Year Ok, not a racewalking stamp as such, but a walking stamp, published in France in July 1972 in honour of Walking Tourism Year.
1972 - Nagaland Nagaland is a state in the far north-eastern part of India. The 16th State of the Indian Union, it was established on December 1, 1963. It has regularly produced very colourful stamps and the one shown on the left is a good example. It is one of 8 stamps produced in 1972 to honour the Munich Olympics. The full set featured Shotput, Racewalk, Javelin, Wrestling, Boxing, Weightlifting, Diving and Basketball.
1973 and 1974 - Nagaland Alex Wijsman has let me know of two further editions of the 1972 Nagaland 8 stamp sheetlet described above, one in 1973 to recognize Scouts Day and one in 1974 to honour the Football World Cup in Munich. These two re-issues featured the same 8 stamps which were overprinted with additional words. The 1973 overprint says SCOUTS DAY 1973 The 1974 overprint says WORLD CUP MUNICH 1974 Football Championships
1976 - Nederland Although not a racewalking stamp, this Dutch stamp was produced to mark the 60th anniversary of the famous Nijmegen 4 Day March, in which many European racewalkers have competed over the years. The stamp was one of two issued on 15/6/1976 under the title of Sports Stamps. The other one showed a silhouette of runners.
1978 - DPR Korea North Korea produced this stamp featuring 1924 Olympic Racewalk winner Ugo Frigerio. This is the third stamp featuring this famous champion who won both racewalk golds in 1920 and another gold in 1924 - 3 golds in total! It was one of a series of 16 stamps, issued in sheetlet form and chronicling the Olympic Games History and it's gold medal winners. The full sheetlet is also shown.
1978 - France : Sport For All This French stamp, issued in 1978 with the theme 'Sport for All' features a racewalker amongst the collage of sportsmen. Other sports include cycling, swimming, boxing, cross country skiing and sprinting. Vic Miller has analysed this stamp as follows: "It appears to me that it's a composite of a pair of race walkers culled from a photo of a moment during the early track segment of the 1974 European Championships' 20km walk. I'm confident that the upper portion of the race walker is Volodymyr Holubnychy (often written as "Vladimir Golubnichy"), and the bottom portion - from the waist down - is that of Peter Frenkel, if I'm not mistaken. The shot putter depicted is also likely a composite - drawn mostly from a photo of Yevgeniy Mironov at the Montreal Olympics if I'm not mistaken. To emphasize my observation, note the 15th, 16th and 17th images in the following sequence of frames: http://throwing.narod.ru/im/teory_ph/kinogramm/mironov.jpg."
1978 – Isle of Man One of a set of two stamps issued by the Isle of Man to celebrate the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Canada. The other stamp featured the Isle of Man emblem but this one featured a swimmer, a cyclist and a walker.
1980 - Central African Republic In 1980, the Central African Republic released a sheetlet of 6 Olympic stamps, each featuring a different Olympic discipline - racewalk, 4x400m relay, 100m run, high jump, boxing and hurdles. The racewalking stamp features Domingo Colin, Daniel Bautista and Peter Frenkel. The picture was taken from a photo of the three who were at the time contesting the 20km racewalk event at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. The other stamps also feature 1976 Olympic athletes. This sheetlet was re-released in 1981 but was overprinted to document the winners of each of these events at the 1980 Olympics. The overprints read 50KM MARCHE HARTWIG GAUDER - G.D.R. 4 X 400 M. DAMES - U.R.R.S 100M. COURSE HOMMES ALLAN WELLS – G.B.R SAUT EN HAUTEUR DAMES . SARA SIMEONI - ITALIE BOXE – 71KG ARMANDO MARTINEZ – CUBA 100M. HAIES HOMMES THOMAS MUNKELT - G.D.R. There are two different colour overprints, one in red and one in gold. So that means that in total, there are 3 different scenarios for each stamp - plain, red overprint and yellow overprint. The 3 different walks stamps are shown opposite.
1980 - Repubic of Niger This stamp, produced by the Republic of Niger (Africa) in the leadup to the 1980 Olympic Games, features the top two Mexican walkers Daniel Bautista and Raul Gonzales, who were amongst the medal favouries for Moscow. Vic has confirmed that the photo was actually taken at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and shows the walkers leaving Le Stade Olympique. The two walkers onscured at the back are Domingo Colin (also of Mexico) and Peter Frenkel (GDR). Mexican race walkers were the reigning Lugano Cup champions and held the world records over both the 20km and the 50km distances going into the 1980 Games but only Raul Gonzalez managed to complete a walk at the Moscow Olympics. Both Domingo Colin and Daniel Bautista were disqualified in the "20" and the trio of Gonzalez, Martin Bermudez and Bautista failed to finish the "50"! The 20km walk was won by Mario DaMilano of Italy. Consequently, this stamp was re-released after the Games with his name overstamped.
1980 - Republic of Niger The 1980 Niger Stamp was also released in sheetlet form with the stamp imprint surrounded by a blue background wallpaper showing the 1980 Olympic symbol. Alex advises that the stamp was issued in at least one more sheetlet with a different background colour but that one is very rare and very expensive and he does not have it.
1980 - USSR This stylized walker was one of a series of Olympic Track and Field stamps produced by the USSR to mark the Moscow Olympics in 1980. The full set of stamps is actually a fantastic one which I have reproduced below.
1980 - USSR The full set of Olympic Track and Field stamps issued by the USSR in 1980 to celebrate the Games in Moscow. What a superb collection!
1984 - Bolivia Bolivia didn't win a walks medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles but they did have a walker in both the 20km and 50km walk events – Morejon finished 36th in the 20km and was a DNF in the 50km. Their 1984 Olympic stamp featured Ernesto Canto of Mexico who won the Olympic 20km walk.
1984 – Nagaland Another stamp from Nagaland, this one celebrating the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The stamp shows action from the 1972 Olympic 20km event in Munich. East German walker Peter Frenkel (the eventual winner) is shown walking behind English walker Paul Nihill who came sixth. The full set of 8 stamps featured the racewalk, shotput, skiing, long jump, water polo, men's relay run, high jump and circular run (might have been 1500m).
1984 - France This French 4 Franc Commemorative Stamp, released on 1 June 1984, celebrates the Los Angeles Olympic Games and the centenary of the I.O.C. and features a Track and Field montag which includes racewalking.
1985 - Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries. This stamp celebrates the 7th National Games which were held in 1985 in Moca, the capital of Espaillat province in the Dominican Republic.
1985 - Paraguay I recently came across what looked like a 1985 Paraguay stamp featuring Mexican walker Raul Gonzales. But was it a real stamp – I had noticed it did not have a monetary denomination on it. I ran it past our expert Alex Wijsman who explained it as follows In 1985, Paraguay issued a sheet with 5 stamps featuring 1984 Olympic Gymnastics gold medalist Mary Lou Retton. The sheet also featured pictures of 4 other gold medalists from those Games - Claudia Losch (West Germany, women’s shotput), Raul Gonzales (Mexico, 50km walk), Peter Seisenbacher (Austria, Judo Middleweight) and Joaquim Cruz (Brazil, 800m run). The last four are not stamps as they do not have a denomination. Israel also often issued stamps together with pictures in this same way. They are still very collectable philatelic items. For the record, Gonzalez set an Olympic record winning the 50-kilometer event at 3:47:26.
1986 - Isle of Man The Isle of Man Post Office produced a set of stamps for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986 - a swimmer, a cyclist, a shooter and a race-walker. These had been the strongest sports for the IOM in previous Games. The walker depicted was Phil Bannan - the first Manx walker to be selected to represent GB (as a junior in the 60's).
1988 - Pakistan To commemorate the 1988 Olympics being held in Seoul from September 17 to October 2, 1988, the Pakistan Post Office Department issued a set of 10 stamps, each of value Rs 10, on September 17, 1988. The stamps represented different events, sports and games of the XXIV OLYMPICS. This one featured a collage which included a racewalker.
1988 - Argentina I am excited to announce that we have found a further racewalking related philatelic item. Argentina released 4 sporting stamps to celebrate the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Although none of the stamps feature racewalking, a number of sheetlets were produced, one of which featured our discipline. Here it is:
1989 - Kampuchea We thought that this stamp, produced by Kampuchea to celebrate the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, featured a racewalker. However, Gibbons, the definitive Stamp Guide, says that this is a runner. It is part of a set of stamps featuring Gymnastics, Shotput, Running, Fencing, Canoeing, Hurding and Weightlifting. Yes, now that you inspect it more closely, it does look more like a runner!
1992 - Tuvalu This Tuvalu stamp features walkers from the 1987 IAAF World Championship race in Rome. Women's racewalking was added to the Olympics in 1992 so perhaps that is why this stamp was produced at that stage and an archival shot used. This photo is also featured on the IAAF Judging Handbook of that period. Alex Wijsman explains: "Tuvalu used to issue a lot of stamps each year, too many in fact, so people stopped buying their stamps. Tuvalu then reduced its yearly output. The racewalking stamp was the big loser, because they destroyed the circulation which wasn't yet distributed. Some dealers had already bought some leaves, so there are a few in circulation now, but you can't find this stamp in any catalogue. Officially now, the stamp isn't exist." So if you are lucky enough to source one, buy it! From left to right you see (279) Beate Anders - Germany, Giuliana Salce - Italy, (187) Sirkka Oikarinen - Finland, Alison Baker - Canada, (517) Monica Gunnarsson - Sweden, Janice McCaffrey - Canada, Sue Cook - Australia, (519) Ann Jansson - Sweden, Suzanne Griesbach - France, (96) Ann Peel - Canada, Unknown - China, (264) Lisa Langford - England, (9) Olga Krishtop - USSR, Maria Cruz Diaz - Spain and (540) Dana Vavracova Czechoslovakia.
1992 - Antigua and Barbuda This stamp, issued by Antigua and Barbuda, was released for the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 and features the 20km Walk for Men. Vic is confident the image was culled from a photo of either the "20" or "50" at the Moscow Olympics - with both Daniel Bautista (#488) and Raul Gonzalez (#483?) clearly visible in the group.
1992 - Maldives The Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean consisting of a double chain of twenty-six atolls. In 1992, it also issued a stamp celebrating the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and it also featured a racewalker.
1992 - Gambia Gambia put out this 1992 Olympics stamp honouring Jose Pedraza of Mexico who won the first ever Mexican Olympic medal (a silver) in the 1968 20km Walk in Mexico City. However, the drawing shows Volodymyr Golubnichy of USSR who won the gold ahead of him – he was wearing the red soviet top, white shorts and white cap and blue adidas runners. I have the photo which shows the finish. Interesting! A mistake like this makes a stamp even more collectible.
1992 - Sri Lanka This stamp sheetlet from Sri Lanka, celebrating the 1992 Olympic Games, features a racewalker in the bottom left hand corner.
1994 - St. Vincent & the Grenadines This stamp features gold medallist Peter Frenkel of East Germany who won the 20km walk at the 1972 Munich Olympics. It celebrates 100 Years of the Olympic Committee so I am guessing it was produced in 1994. On the stamp you read the name of Peter Frennel instead of Peter Frenkel. Again, a collector's item due to to the error.
1996 - Latvia This Latvian stamp was produced in 1996 to commemorate the Olympic Games of that year.
1996 - Guyana This stamp was one of 4 produced by Guyana to mark the 1996 Olympics. The writing on this stamp reads “20K Walk first introduced in 1956 olympics. LEONID SPIRIN of Russia was the gold medal winner.” The picture is not from the 1956 Olympic race as the race numbers do not match. Spirin wore race number 24 in that event and race numbers 145 and 714 were not there either. The modern Adidas runners also indicate a rendering of a more recent event. The partial walking figure on the left looks to be in an Australian uniform which is interesting. Michael Harvey has emailed me to say that he thinks it is from a photo taken during the 1980 Olympic 20km walk in Moscow. I think he is right as that particular Olympics featured these very large numbers without any further motif on them. Other stamps in the Guyana Olympic set featured - Lars Hall, the winner of the 1952 Olympic Modern Pentathlon - the 1996 Olympic Stadium - The ancient Greek Olympic discipline of the Pancratium, a mixture of extreme boxing and wrestling.
1996 - Ecuador Jefferson Perez of Ecuador became the country's inaugural Olympic Gold Medallist when he won the 20km walk in the Games of that year. It made him a household name in that country and his feat was celebrated with this postage stamp.
1998 - Malaysia After the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia produced a stamp sheetlet honouring their 10 gold medals from that meet – the greatest ever Comm Games medal haul for that country. Amongst the gold medallists was Govindaswamy Saravanan who beat more favoured opponents to win the 50km walk. Here is his individual stamp, worth 30 Sen. The race is forever etched into my memory because of its drama and changing fortunes. The favourites – Dion Russell of Australia and Craig Barrett of New Zealand – both failing to finish and the relatively unknown Malaysian walker finishing in bare feet to claim gold. As a post to this story, Saravanan announced after the win that he would be retiring. True to his word, he has not raced internationally since.
1998 Malaysia And here are the full set of all 10 gold medal stamps, released as a sheetlet.
2000 - Ecuador We already know about the 1996 stamp put out be Ecuador to honour it's gold medallist Jefferson Perez. But they also put out another Olympic stamp in 2000 and it also featured Perez. It is from the XXVII (27th) Olympiad in Sydney 2000 where he finished 4th in the 20km.
2000 - Poland Poland produced a series of four stamps to celebrate the Summer Olympics in Sydney in 2000. The stamps featured - Running - Platform diving, windsurfing, canoeing, sailing - Pole vault, weightlifting, fencing - Basketball, judo and walking. The fourth stamp, shown here, featured Polish walker Robert Korzeniowski (50km gold medal) in the collage.
2001 - Poland In 2001, Poland produced a sheetlet of stamps celebrating one thousand years of Polish history, culture and science from a 21st century perspective. Every stamp is dedicated to a different field of life in which landmark moments in history are compared with contemporary Polish history. Amongst the stamps is one featuring Robert Korzenioskil
2001 - Poland In 2001, Poland produced a sheetlet of stamps celebrating one thousand years of Polish history, culture and science from a 21st century perspective. Every stamp is dedicated to a different field of life in which landmark moments in history are compared with contemporary Polish history. Amongst the 16 stamps are Religion - Pope John Paul II Politics - President Lech Walesa Theatre - Wojciech Boguslawski (1757-1829) and Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999) Independence - Jozef Pilsudski (1867-1935) Astronomy - Mikolaj Kopernik (Copernicus, 1473-1543) and Aleksander Wolszczan (born in 1946) Education - Jan of Glogow (1445-1507) and Tadeusz Kotarbinski (1886-1981). Music - Krzysztof Penderecki (born in 1933) and Fryderyk Chopin (1810-49) Poland in the European Union - Jan III Sobieski Language and Literature - Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska (born in 1923) and Mikolaj Rej (1505-1569) Sport - Janusz Kusocinski (1907-40) and Robert Korzeniowski
2002 - Portugal This Portugese stamp, designed by Jose Luis Tinoco (his name is in the bottom left corner), is one of a set of 8 stamps issued by that country in 2002 to celebrate sport.
2004 - Greece Greece put out this postal stamp celebrating the win by home town walker Athanasia Tsoumeleka who won gold in the women's 20km walk at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Interestingly, Tsoumeleka was later banned after failing a drugs test in 2008 and second placed Olympiada Ivanova had previously sat out a 2 year drugs ban in 1997. Jane Saville of Australia finished third in this Olympic walk.
2006 - Australia Australia Post decided to issue a postage stamp for each winner in the 2004 Olympic Games. With Jane Saville and Nathan Deakes, getting bronze medals in those Games, they came close but missed out. Australia Post then decided to continue with this concept for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Since Jane won the women's 20km walk and Nathan won the men's 20km and 50km events, they featured on the gold medallist stamps (Jane once and Nathan twice). These are shown on the left. Australia Post did the same in the 2008 Olympic Games and Jared Tallent came close to postage stamp fame with his bronze and silver medals. With his win in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Jared should have joined Nathan and Jane but, for reasons unknown, Australia Post did not produce Gold Medal stamps for those Games. They did produce them again for the 2012 Olympic Games and again Jared went so close, finishing second in the 50km race. So close yet so far!
2007 - Ecuador This stamp, featuring Jefferson Perez, was released by Ecuador on December 18 2007 as part of a set of 5 commemorating the Pan-American Games of that year. It was the second stamp from Ecuador to feature the champion racewalker.
2007 - Ecuador This is the full set of 5 40¢ stamps issued by Ecuador to celebrate the 2007 Pan-American Games. The stamps feature Alexander Escobar and Seledina Nieve (weightlifting),Jefferson Perez (walker), Xavier Moreno (runner) and the Under 18 soccer team.
2007 - Taiwan This set of 4 stamps, themed Outdoor Activities, was published in November 2007. The 4 featured sports are Speed Walking, Cycling, Skate Board and Skating. And yes, Speed Walking is indeed Race Walking!
2008 - France In 2008. France issued a sheetlet of 10 stamps in celebration of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. As you can see on the left, one of the stamps featured a racewalker.
2008 - France And here is the full 10 stamp sheetlet.
2008 - El Salvador El Salvador released a 2008 Beijing Olympics stamp and sheetlet set in July of that year. It featured 4 individual stamps and one sheetlet. One of the 4 individual stamps features a racewalker. The only El Salvadorian woman walker of note at that time was Veronica Abigail Colindres Garcia who represented El Salvador at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the women's 20 km race walk and then went on to win a silver medal for the 20km at the 2009 Pan American Race Walking Cup in San Salvador. The 2008 Olympics saw a very small El Salvador team of 11 athletes (7 men and 4 women) competing in 9 sports. Colindres was one of only 2 T&F athletes selected for those Games. Might it be her on the stamp in question? See also the full sheetlet that was produced, with 5 sets of the 4 stamps. It is great to see the racewalking stamp as the first stamp on the sheetlet.
2010 - Asian Games - China This Chinese stampsheet from the 2010 Asian Games, Guangzhou, China, features Chinese gold medallists from that meet. China won all 3 walks medals at that meet (Wang Hao on the men's 20km - 1:20:50, Si Tianfeng in the 50km - 3:47:04 and Liy Hong in the women's 20km - 1:30:06). There is definitely one walker and I am guessing that the picture of the athlete throwing water over his face is also a walker. In that case, they would be Wang Hao and Si Tianfeng. It is not strictly a stamp of a walker but a sheetlet which is nearly the same thing!
2012 - China In the 2012 London Olympics, China produced stamp sheetlets celebrating each of their gold medallists - and that included Chinese walker Chen Ding who became the first ever Chinese to win Olympic gold in a racewalk event - the 20km. The sheetlet includes 4 of the Chinese 2012 Olympic Stamp.
2013 - Mozambique The African country of Mozambique released a set of 5 stamps on 25th November 2013 to celebrate the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Moscow. The release featured 4 stamps highlighting sprints, high jump, pole vault and hurdles as well as a separate sheetlet featuring the 50km walk event.
2014 - Racewalking World Cup - China This sheet was brought out by China to coincide with the staging of the 2014 IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Taicang. It features 2012 Olympic 20km gold medallist Chen Ding.
2016 - Australia - Jared Tallent, 2012 Gold Medallist On Friday 17 Jane 2016, a special ceremony was held in Melbourne, Australia, to retrospectivly award the 2012 Olympic 50km gold medal to Australian racewalker Jared Tallent. He had come 2nd in the race in London but was upgraded to gold when the first placed Russian was outed for drugs offences. He also became the new Olympic 50km record holder. Australia Post has honoured all Australian Olympic gold medallists with their own stamp since 2000 and also did the same for all gold medallists in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Thus Jared became eligible for his own stamp once his gold was confirmed by the IOC. This stamp came out almost immediately after the ceremony. In this, he followed in the footsteps of Nathan Deakes and Jane Saville who were similarly honoured for their 2006 Commonwealth Golds in Melbourne
2016 - Isle of Man Rio Olympic Stamps Isle of Man Post Office released a set of four Team GB stamps in recognition of their participation in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The four stamps showcased swimming, track cycling, race walking and gymnastics which at London 2012, bought Team GB a combined medal haul of 16.
2018 Isle of Man - Year of our Island This stamp release from the Isle of Man features 10 different Tourism Landscapes Stamps, one of which shows the Parish Walk, an 85 miles ultra distance walking race which is held annually and circumnavigates the island, visiting all of the Parish churches. And here is the actual Parish Walk Stamp
2020 Latvia - Janis Dalinš Janis Dalinš (904-1978) was the first Latvian athlete to win a gold medal, as an independent country, achieved at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1932, when he won the silver medal in the 50km walk. He also won the first European Athletics Championships 50km, held in the Italian city of Turin, in 1934. The stamp design is based on a photo provided by the Archives of the Museum of Valmiera. Both stamp and FDC were issued by the Latvian Postal Services in October 2020.

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