Three-time U-20 racewalk winner at 10,000 meters looks to secure U.S. Olympic Trials standard at double the distance against pro athletes, add another American junior record to impressive resume

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

For all the profound steps Taylor Ewert has taken on her path to rewriting national high school and American U-20 racewalk records during an exceptional career at Beavercreek High in Ohio, the journey toward the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials officially begins Sunday for the 17-year-old standout.

Ewert, representing Southwest Ohio Track Club, will participate in the National Junior 20-Kilometer Racewalk Championships in Owego, N.Y., her first competition at the same distance for athletes at next year’s Olympic Trials women’s racewalk in Oregon.

“The 20K is definitely going to be a lot to handle,” said Ewert, who captured her third consecutive 10,000-meter racewalk title Sunday at the USATF U-20 Championships in Miramar, Fla.

“I just want to go out there and get a feel for it. I don’t want to go out too quick and dig myself into a hole, but just go out there and have a good race and enjoy it and get that first 20K under my belt.

“It’s really important because next year there’s only a couple of races before the Trials, and there’s just going to be a lot more confidence going in getting one underneath my belt because it’s just one more race that I know what to expect and I know how it’s going to feel.”

Ewert is scheduled to compete at 5:30 a.m. EDT against men’s and women’s collegiate and professional athletes on a 1-kilometer loop at Marvin Park, pursuing the Olympic Trials standard of 1:48.00. Since it is a USATF-certified event, there will be race distances ranging from 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers.

“I’ve been doing a lot more distance work than I have been track and repetition, so I’m just hoping to go out there and get that standard, and then work from that time,” said Ewert, whose longest training workout has been 11 miles to gain endurance for the upcoming 20-kilometer challenge.

“Hopefully next year I can do another 20K before the Trials, and at that point, really try to lower it and go for the Olympic standard (1:31.00) and then again at the Trials, go for a really good time.”

Ewert boasts national high school and American U-20 records ranging from one mile to 10,000 meters.

She is likely to add another record to her resume Sunday, going after the 2016 American U-20 mark of 1:47.18 by Meaghan Podlaski, a Colonie Central NY graduate who recently competed for NCAA Division 3 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.

“Even though I may not hit the fastest time this weekend, as long as I go under 1:48, that’s good and then the next race in the spring, that way I can really focus, know what to expect and try to get a lot faster time and same for the Olympic Trials,” Ewert said. “This weekend, it’s just good to get one in. It’s a nice time between track and cross country and it will be really exciting because I have expectations for how fast I think I can go. I just want to be conservative and then see how I feel that last 10K, so it’s going to be exciting.”

Ewert already had opportunities this year to compete in February and April against collegiate and professional athletes, first indoors at the Elaine Ward/USATF Championship 1-mile Racewalk as part of the 112th NYRR Millrose Games and then in the Olympic Development 5K Racewalk at the 125th Penn Relays.

She responded with personal bests of 6:28.21 in the indoor mile to prevail against a pair of Olympians, then clocked 22:28.61 in the 5,000 despite challenging conditions in Philadelphia to win by nearly a minute.

“This past year, my racewalking has gone really well. I was hoping to go a little bit faster in the Penn Relays 5K, but the conditions were just kind of all over the place, but I was still able to go quicker (than last year),” Ewert said. “Millrose we had a really big breakthrough in the mile and I had really great competition there, so I’m just leaning on that and hoping that with good competition in the 20K and in the 10K (at Pan Am U-20 Championships), that I’ll be able to have more breakthrough races and set myself up for a great spring season going into the Trials next year.”

Ewert will also use the challenge of competing at the 20-kilometer distance Sunday to build even more strength for the 10,000-meter racewalk July 21 at the Pan Am U-20 Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica.

“It’s crazy because I feel like it was just three years ago that we sat down and said this was a possibility and these are the races we’re going to go and now here they are, so I’m excited,” Ewert said. “The bigger the race, the better I perform.”