One more season, says Wayne Snyman, then it’s time to move on

Last year, race walker Wayne Snyman told his family and his employers that it would be his last season on the competitive circuit.

After delivering one of the best performances of his career at the Tokyo Olympics, however, and the launch of a new race walking distance, he had a change of heart.

Snyman finished 20th in a field of 58 athletes at last year’s Tokyo Games, putting up a fight in humid conditions in the men’s 20km race.

And now, with World Athletics dropping the 50km ultra-distance event for the shorter 35km distance at this year’s World Championships in Oregon, the 36-year-old athlete couldn’t resist just one more campaign. But this one, he says, is likely to be his last.

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“The idea was to retire after Tokyo, but my wife and I had a discussion. Oregon is a nice venue, and it’s a shot at the 35km,” Snyman said.

“So I’m taking it race by race at this stage, but I can’t see myself going beyond this year. I’m definitely not doing another Olympic cycle, so Paris 2024 is definitely out for me.”

Last week, Snyman won the national 35km title in 2:32:52, dipping eight seconds under the qualifying standard (2:33:00) for the World Championships in his first attempt at the distance, and after clocking 1:20:59 at a race in Slovakia last year, he has also qualified for the 20km event at the global showpiece.

“My coach and I will need to talk about it and make a decision,” he said.

“I might do the 20km and the 35km at the World Championships, and if I go out I’ll go out with a bang, but we’ll see. It’s still a long season and I’ll see how the training progresses.”

With two African Games bronze medals and five South African 20km titles, Snyman doesn’t have much left on his career bucket list.

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One more crack at the World Championships – in Oregon, the former home of one of his idols, American distance running legend Steve Prefontaine – should do the trick.

Then it’ll be time to move on, turning his full attention towards wife Nadelene and their young son, as well as his job as a teacher at Glenstantia Primary School in Pretoria.

“It’s not that I don’t think I have it in me to compete anymore, but my son is getting older and I want to spend more time with my family and focus on that part of my life.”