Canada's Evan Dunfee calls out the 'TikTokification' of the Olympics
A Canadian race walker is not pleased with the direction of the Olympics heading into L.A. 2028.
Evan Dunfee, who won a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Games, took to social media on Wednesday to voice his concerns about what he calls the “TikTokification” of the Olympics. This stems from the iconic global competition removing all but one of the race walking events for the 2028 edition of the Games.
“Well, that’s a shame. Race walk down to one event in LA. No relay, no individual marathon. Just a half,” Dunfee wrote on social media.
“I know a lot of people don’t care about the walk, but I think endurance fans should see us as a canary in coal mine in the ongoing TikTokification of the Games.”
Well that’s a shame. Race walk down to 1 event in LA. No relay, no individual marathon. Just a half.
I know a lot of people don’t care about the walk, but I think endurance fans should see us as a canary in coal mine in the ongoing tiktokification of the Games.— Evan Dunfee (@EvanDunfee) April 9, 2025
At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, race walking had three distinct events for men and women athletes. That included men’s and women’s 20-km races as well as a marathon race walk mixed relay.
Heading into L.A., none of those events will be present. Instead, it will be just a men’s and women’s half-marathon (21 km) race walk.
The most interesting claim made by Dunfee is that the Olympic Games are going through something he dubbed “TikTokification.” This seems to allege that the Games are skewing toward “cooler” sports that would be more popular on social media applications such as TikTok.
The addition of breaking to the Paris 2024 Games would seem to fit that mould as it had multiple moments go viral online. However, despite the apparent popularity, breaking will not be present at the upcoming L.A. Games.
Dunfee also said that the removal of these race walk events could be a sign of things to come for endurance-based athletic events. Outside of the race walk event, all the other endurance athletic events are set to carry over into 2028.
Apart from revealing the athletic programme for the L.A. Games on Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made several other announcements. The biggest of which is that for the first time, all team sports will have the same number of men’s and women’s teams in 2028, marking a huge win for gender equality at the Olympic Games.