Dave's World Class Racewalking Athlete Biographies

Dave McGovern has been the premier walking coach in the United States for over 15 years. His athletes have completed marathons, won masters racewalking championships, set age-group world records, and even qualified for the United States Olympic Track & Field Trials.

Some of Dave's athletes include:


Yvonne Allmaras	Rebecca Garson	Mike Tarantino	Susan Randall	Elizabeth Richardson	Lis Shepard
Yvonne got into racewalking to get a good workout but was not at all interested in racing. After some arm-twising, Yvonne started racing, first in her hometown of Denver, and more recently at National competitons. She recently placed 2nd at the 2008 USATF 30k Championship and 3rd at the USATF 40k Championship. Yvonne likes racing now!	Rebecca went from 200 lb. couch potato to a walker in 2005. She has since won seven USATF masters national championships in several distances. With a personal best of 2:04:05, Rebecca is one of the fastest grandmothers in the US! She is looking ahead to competing in the 2012 Olympic 20k Trials. She recently placed 4th at the USATF 40k Chammpionship.	Mike placed 10th at the USA Olympic 20k Trials and was a member of the World Cup team that competed in Cheboksary, Russia in May 2008.	Susan capped off her 2008 season with an 11th-place finish at the 2008 Olympic Trials 20k. She's now busily training to earn a spot on Team USA for the 2009 Pan Am Cup in San Salvador, El Salvador.	A half-marathon/20k specialist, Alaska resident Elizabeth Richardson has a 20k PR of 2:38:05. Her current goal is to complete every Rock & Roll Half-Marathon in the US.	Lis has managed to race personal-bests in just about every race she's done in the past two years. Her next goal is a sub-2:40 half-marathon. Click here to keep up with Lis's exploits!.


Carol Alexander	Christoph Schmid	Loretta Schuellein-McGovern	Karen Karavanic	Darla Yoerg	Donna Graham
Carol, only racewalking since February, 2007, placed 5th in the USATF 40k Championship.	With personal bests of 27:28 and 57:02, German native Christoph Schmid is now one of the top masters walkers in the US. Chris was recently Overall Champion in the RRCA 20k Racewalk Championship in Coconut Creek, FL.	Less than one week after qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Trials in the 20k racewalk, Loretta won the USATF National 1-Mile Racewalk Championship at the Millrose Games in New York City. Her time of 6:52.12 was a personal best. She placed 10th at the 2008 Olympic Trials 20k.	Karen, competing for "Western Women Go the Distance," placed second in the 2007 USATF National 50K Championship in Chula Vista, CA. Although a veteran marathon walker, this was Karen's first attempt at the 50k distance. Click here to read Karen's blog.	Darla, who has brought her 5k Personal Best down over 10 minutes this year, recently placed 2nd in her age-group at the 2008 National 5k in 29:12.	Donna recently placed 1st in her 55-59 age-group at the Huntsman Senior Games in the 1,500m, 3,000m and 5k racewalks (overall champion in the 5k!) and was 2nd overall out of 1586 women at the New Albany 10K Walking Classic.


Nicolle Goldman	Jeannie Harms	Carolyn Kealty	Panse Geer	Dorothy Slentz	Ray Sharp
Nicolle, from Sacramento, CA walked 4:47:01 and was the first female racewalker in the 2007 Boston Marathon.	Jeannie, from Calgary, AB Canada, is making the transition from marathon running and triathloning to racewalking. She is fast becomming one of the top racewalkers in Canada.	Carolyn qualified for the 2004 Olympic Track and Field Trials just over a year after learning to racewalk. The 45-year-old mother of two also qualified for and placed 9th in the 2008 Trials.	Panse placed 3rd in the 5,000m and 10k racewalks at the 2007 WAVA World Championships in Riccione, Italy.	In her first judged racewalk Dorothy placed 7th in the US Pan Am Cup team trials, coming within one minute of qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Track and Field Trials.	Ray, 48, a member of the US 2006 and 2008 World Cup and 2007 Pan Am Cup 50k teams, won the 2006, 2007 and 2008 USATF 40k and placed 5th at the 2008 50k Olympic Trials.

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