Keen fans may have noticed Canadian Olympic athlete Evan Dunfee’s X account active in the middle of his event at the Paris 2024 Games.
It’s not often that an athlete would have access to their phone in the middle of a competition, but the Olympic race walk mixed relay is unique.
The event covers the distance of a marathon and involves four legs, each roughly 10 kilometres long. Each team is comprised of two athletes, one man and one woman, who alternate sections of the race.
Dunfee got out to a blazing start in the race, setting a Canadian record through the first leg. He then got to wait while teammate Olivia Lundman cruised through the second leg.
The 33-year-old took advantage of the downtime to post on social media celebrating his excellent time.
“Full. F**king. Send,” starts the post.
“Canadian record through 10km. Let’s see what I got for another 10.”
Full. Fucking. Send.
Canadian Record through 10km.
Let’s see what I got for another 10. https://t.co/Tjf3Ubir7s— Evan Dunfee (@EvanDunfee) August 7, 2024
The veteran Olympic racewalker had the Canadians in first place at one point during his extremely quick first leg. However, by the time that opening stage was done, he had fallen to seventh place.
Dunfee and Lundman kept up the speed for the rest of the race and set a Canadian record in the event with a time of 3:04:57. They finished 20th out of 25 total teams, including two who did not make it to the finish line.
The two athletes have deeper ties than just being teammates. Dunfee also acts as a coach for the 21-year-old Lundman, who is just starting her career. She attends the University of British Columbia and is competing in her first Olympics.
The Richmond, BC, native Dunfee is appearing in his third Olympics at the Paris 2024 Games. He made history at the Tokyo 2020 Games when he captured a bronze medal in the 50km race walk, bringing home Canada’s first-ever medal in the event.
He finished fifth in the 20km race walk at the Paris 2024 Olympics, just narrowly missing out on adding another medal to Canada’s growing total.