Former Cross Country Runner Matthew Forgues Attempts To Make USA Olympic Team In 50K Race Walk On Saturday

BALTIMORE, Md. – Former Goucher College cross country runner Matthew Forgues and 2014 graduate will compete in the United States Olympic Trials in the 50k Race Walk on Saturday in Santee, Calif. Up to three men will qualify for Team USA and will compete at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. The race begins at 7 a.m. (PST).

Forgues, who goes into the competition ranked at the top competitor in the United States, has improved his finish at the United States National Championships in the last three years. He finished third in 2017, second in 2018 and won the event last year on the course that he will race in the Olympic Trials on Saturday. Last year, he also finished fifth at the Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru. 

This will be the second chance for Forgues to represent the United States at the Olympics after just missing the cut in 2016 with a fourth-place finish.

Forgues, who came to Baltimore from Boothbay, Maine, was a member of the Goucher cross country team for his senior campaign of 2013. He studied abroad while at Goucher in Santiago, Chile where he competed in the Santiago Marathon. After graduation, he went to teach on an Indian reservation, Standing Rock, in North and South Dakota. There, he rekindled his love of race walking.

"I may only have run one season of cross country at Goucher, but it was those three months that allowed me to fall in love with training again, enjoy the presence of a team filled with incredible people and taught me how to be competitive with myself and in the world of athletics again," Forgues said in a Facebook post. "If it was not for that one season, I wouldn't have had the momentum to get where I am presently." 

A 50k Race Walk is 31.07 miles and the winner could finish in about three hours and 50 minutes, which is about seven minutes and 24 seconds per mile.