Older brother of Olympic bronze medallist race walker recalls the day his kid brother Evan Dunfee surpassed him

Vancouver -

The proud older brother of Olympic medallist race walker Evan Dunfee says he remembers the day his brother surpassed him.

Adam Dunfee – who’s quick to point out that he’s three years older than Evan – says he’s the reason his little brother got into the sport in the first place.

On Friday, at the 2020 Summer Olympics, amid torturous humidity in Sapporo, Japan, Evan brought home bronze for Canada in the men’s 50-kilometre race walk event.

Adam had been involved in long distance running in Richmond, B.C., as a kid, but in Grade 8, while recovering from surgery, he began race walking, and found he had a talent.

As youngesters, most kids didn’t commit to following the rules, says Adam – which require that your knee is locked when you come down on your front foot and that you always have two feet on the ground. So, by following the rules, Adam said he did well and began winning medals.

Then, one day in the driveway, Evan wisened to his older brother’s ways.

“Evan sort of thought to himself that, well, if I could race walk, then he too could race walk. So, I taught him,” Adam told CTV News Vancouver.

The pair began training together regularly.

“We would go out and train with a group called Race Walk West out at Burnaby Central … (on) Saturday mornings,” he said.

Then, one day, seemingly out of the blue, his little brother surpassed him.

“I think it was just after I got out of high school and we were walking on the track doing an exercise and he passed me,” Adam said.

“I was going about as hard as I could go and I sort of realized that was it for me. If my younger brother is passing me, that's it, I'm done,” he said.

“And he just kept going and going. He made national teams, he went to international championships and just kept getting better and better and now here he is, Olympic bronze medallist.”

Adam and friends watched the event together back in Canada as Evan struggled through 25 laps of a 2-kilometre track during the televised race.

Evan told the Canadian Press that to get through the race, he summoned thoughts of his friends and family watching him back home, as well as the memory of his late grandmother.

"Started to have cramps and was just kind of at my limit. I asked my body, 10, 15, 20 times to give me a little bit more, a little bit more. It wasn't giving it," he said.

"Coming around that final bend with 500, 600 metres to go, I just asked one more time.

"At that point in the race, I was just thinking about my friends and family back home walking every step of the way with me, and thinking about my nana who would have been walking every step of the way with me.

"Channelling that energy, and their love and support, my body said, 'OK, go. Here's another gear."'

Back home, Evan’s big brother says he’s “extremely proud” and that watching Evan pull ahead in the final metres was surreal.

“We were all losing our minds,” Adam said. 

With files from The Canadian Press and CTV News Vancouver's Angela Jung.