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Boardman racewalker on the fast track
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Neighbors | Submitted.Michael Mannozzi competed for Team USA at Canada's Track and Field Championships in Ontario as a racewalker.
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Neighbors | Submitted.Boardman graduate Michael Mannozzi (center) won a racewalking national championship as a member of the Notre Dame College track and field team.
By COURTNEY DENEN
Boardman graduate Michael Mannozzi can walk a mile in 6:38. For those of you who don’t know, that’s pretty fast.
So fast in fact, that it might earn him a trip to the Olympics as a racewalker.
Race walking is a long distance athletic event that requires skill and focus on technical details. Although it is a foot race, it is different from running. One foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times.
Now a senior at Notre Dame College, Mannozzi, 24, found success in track and field and has been competing as a professional race walker for two months.
Recently, he represented the USA Track and Field team in Toronto, Ontario, in Canada’s Track and Field National Championships. He placed fifth out of six elite athletes, including an Olympian.
In March, he competed at East Tennessee State in the NAIA Indoor National Championships and placed first in the 3000-meter race walk in 13:19.50.
In April, he won the 5000-meter race walk at the Jack Hazen Open at Malone University with a time of 26:03.09.
Race walking is not the most common sport around and Mannozzi credits his Notre Dame javelin coach, David Bellar, for his interest in the sport.
“My coach recommended I try it back in 2007. He had a hunch I may be able to place higher in it and strongly suggested I try it,” said Mannozzi.
His coach was right. After years of hard work and dedication and winning several races, Mannozzi has his eyes on competing at an Olympic level.
“I certainly do have aspirations of competing in the Olympics,” he said. “However, I know that although I have had great fortune in only two and a half years of competing, I still have much ground to cover in order to compete with the top handful in the USA.”
He still has a lot of work to do to if he wants to compete in the 2012 Olympics.
“Right now, my best times would not even get me into the trials, so that is my first goal or dream to live out,” he said.
He’s optimistic that if he doesn’t make the team in 2012, he’ll “hold on for 2016.”
One of Mannozzi’s proudest moments came when he won the bronze medal in the Penn Relays with more than 22,000 spectators watching.
“The Penn Relays are the most prestigious and longest running outdoor relay race in the world, excluding the Olympics,” he said.
More than 60 countries were represented and 17,000 athletes competed in the three-day event.
“Being the first to ever represent Notre Dame College, let alone to finish in the top three, was absolutely amazing,” he said.
The moment Mannozzi passed the fourth-place competitor and the announcer said: “The Italian Stallion, Mike Mannozzi makes his move” is a moment he will never forget.
“I still had about three miles to go in the race, so I hoped I wouldn’t die off, but to be recognized as who I am was literally my dream coming true at such a high-class meet,” he said.
His nickname, “Italian Stallion” originated from the “Rocky” movies.
When he watched them, he couldn’t help but parallel Sylvester Stallone’s character of Rocky to the experiences and determination he had in his own life.
His family, specifically his Uncle Orin, challenged him by saying his grandfather, Carmen Mannozzi, would have said, “You better be very good or do something great to put a nickname like that on your track jacket.”
Mannozzi said the true meaning of his nickname is a way to honor his father’s memory.
“I feel I can carry his name proudly and am living a life that would be more than enough for us both,” he said. “The name is to honor my father and to not forget where I have come from.”