Dave McGovern

Dave McGovern is the most experienced and productive racewalking coach and clinician in the US, and perhaps the world. A 22+ year veteran of the US National Racewalk Team with a master's degree in sport science from the United States Sports Academy, Dave has conducted some 20 clinics and camps per year throughout North American as well as Europe, and South and Equatorial Africa, since 1991. Many of Dave's clinic alumni have lost weight, bounced back from heart disease and diabetes, completed marathons, and many have won masters racewalking championships and set age-group world records.

During his 25-year competitive career Dave won 13 U.S. National Championships and walked 20 kilometers (12.4 miles--one of the two Olympic distances for men) in 1:24:29--a 6:48 per-mile pace--which ranks him as the fastest American ever to not make an Olympic Team. (Onward to 2012!) A member of 18 International Teams, including six World Cup and six Pan Am Cup teams, Dave competed at the junior 10K at the US Olympic Trials in 1984 and in either the 20k or 50k (or both) as a senior in every Olympic Trials since 1988.

As a private coach, Dave has had ten athletes qualify for the United States Olympic Track & Field Trials. Dave also coaches the national team of Ghana, West Africa, and was one of the two coaches for the U.S. team at the 2008 World Cup of Racewalking in Cheboksary Russia. Dave is currently the National (U.S. and Canada) Coach for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation's Team Challenge Half-Marathon Walk Team, as well as their Long Island, NY Run Coach.

In addition to coaching racewalking, Dave has been a writer for Walking Magazine and Walk! Magazine, and the author of The Complete Guide to Marathon Walking, The Complete Guide to Racewalking Technique and Training and Precision Walking.