Founder & CEO - Jeff Salvage

Jeff Salvage pursues his interests — photography, computer technology, and the outdoors — with a focus and intensity that can only be described as passionate. With race walking, this passion becomes an obsession. Whether he’s flying across the country to support and document a National Team race, pacing a protégé through a half-marathon, or serving up electrolytes through a rainy 50K, Salvage smiles through it all—typically with camera, cell phone, and computer notebook within reach.

Salvage claims that “no one who knew him as a kid” could conceive of his 30-year immersion in the world of athletics. But at age 16, he arose from behind his computer to join his high-school cross-country team. Salvage enjoyed running, but his knees gave out early. So when he started race walking his senior year of high school, no one expected much. Salvage surprised them all, breaking the 7:00 min/mile barrier and finishing second at High School Nationals his very first season race walking.

With his newly discovered “raw talent for race walking” as motivation, Salvage focused much time and energy on developing his skills. He improved rapidly. Unfortunately, he struggled with injuries each time success seemed within reach. Having competed internationally and achieved one of his main goals—winning the Maccabiah Games—Salvage decided not to fight the fates and returned to his computer career. Still in college, he formed the club PHAST (Philadelphia-Area Striders Team) and led the resurgence of race walking in Philadelphia.

Graduating college in 1992, he balanced his information systems career—consulting, teaching and writing several college textbooks—while serving as Mid Atlantic Race Walking Chairman and Director of Race Walks at the Penn Relays, a position he still holds. In 1996 he became U.S. Junior National Race Walk Coordinator, coaching many top Juniors while running training camps for promising young athletes at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA. Meanwhile, Salvage spearheaded his sport’s presence on the Internet with www.racewalk.com serving as the USATF race walking committee’s official site for nearly a decade. Today this site remains a primary source of free information on race walking technique, training, club programs, and national competition.

In 1996 Salvage coauthored Walk Like an Athlete, the basis of the race walking chapter of the USATF coach’s manual. Soon after he produced a two-part video by the same name. While this package served as a springboard for his current book/video/DVD series, Salvage’s recent products represent a wider synthesis of cumulative knowledge delivered with his expert flair for photography, computer graphics, and expository writing.

Today Salvage teaches computer science at Drexel University while pursuing numerous consulting, writing, and creative projects. To see all of Jeff's projects visit www.jeffsalvage.com.

Tim Seaman

Possibly one of the most successful racewalkers in American history, Tim Seaman holds an astonishing eight separate American records. Tim captured gold in his last and final race at the 2014 US Indoor Championships to record his 14th Indoor Title. It was the 47th National Championship title of his career, the 2nd most out of any athlete, in any event, in the sport of track and field. Only NYAC Hall of Famer, Ron Laird, has won more championships. He won by a mere .20 seconds and he set the World Masters Record in the process!

Tim won the USA Indoor 5,000m title in 2010 for his 43rd career national title, in the process passing the 42 crowns won by National Track & Field Hall of Famer Henry Laskau. Seaman made history with his 11th career victory in the men's 5,000m race walk at the 2009 USA Indoor Championships in Boston, finishing in 19:59.06. Seaman now holds 14 USA Indoor titles, which is the most in the sport's history, passing the 12 from NYAC Hall of Famer, Lance Deal.

His greatest International race was in Athens, Greece at the 2004 Olympic Games where he finished 20th in a time of 1:25:17 and bettered the previous top American Olympic time of 1:25:42 by Marco Evoniuk’s seventh-place finish at the 1984 Olympics. Seaman bettered his own American 20 km RW record in 2004 with his first place finish in Copenhagen in 1:22:02.

Tim got started at North Babylon High School on Long Island where Coach Manhardt introduced him to the event in order to help the team score points. After high school he attended the University of Wisconsin - Parkside, where, thanks to Coach Mike DeWitt, he set 4 US Jr records, won 2 US Jr. Titles, obtained the NAIA Collegiate Record, as well as became the first four time NAIA National Championship winner in the history of the event.

After graduating, he moved to La Grange, Georgia to train full time for the 1996 Olympic Games under Coach Bohdan Bulakowski. After missing the 1996 Olympic Team, Tim joined forces with Andrew Hermann and convinced both the US Olympic Committee (USOC) and USA Track and Field (USATF) to allow a group of young racewalkers to have a Residency Program at the US Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. After winning the Olympic Trials in record time, Tim went on to compete in the 2000 Olympics and placed 40th. Disappointed would be an understatement, but Tim had, what Olympians call 5-Ring Fever, and redoubled his efforts.

Tim switched groups to Team Plaetzer to prepare for the 2004 Olympics. Under Coach Stephan Plaetzer, he finally broke the US 20km record that had eluded him for so long.

From 2005, thru his retirement in 2014, Tim trained part time and began to coach some of the best up and coming walkers. Starting off with Zach Pollinger, and NYAC’s Deb Huberty and Jolene Moore, Tim built up his group to what it is today - one of the greatest groups in US history.

In 2014 alone, 4 Canadian Records were set, as well as 4 American records by Tim's athletes. At the 2012 Olympics, Coach Tim had 4 athletes from 3 countries competing. Both Maria Michta and Trevor Barron walked their way to the fastest times ever by Americans at the Olympics. In Trevor's case, he surpassed the time put forth by his coach in Athens.

Tim is currently the Head Men’s Cross Country Coach and Head Women’s Track and Field Coach at Cuyamaca College and coaching many of USA’s top race walkers.

Contact Tim at tim.seaman@olympian.org

Rachel Seaman

Rachel Seaman grew up in Peterborough, Canada participating in a variety of sports like soccer, basketball and badminton. Her parents were two of the best marathon runners in Canadian After years of resisting to try track and field because of her parents involvement, she finally decided to try it at 14 years old. She started trying different events like running, hurdles and long jump. Her sister, Rebecca, was also doing track and field and had started race walking. One day at practice Rachel started to imitate her sisters technique and their coach, Richard Borek, told her that she was a natural and that she should try it. With some convincing she decided to give it a try.

After a few years of race walking along with still competing in other sports, Rachel decided to focus solely on race walking at 18 years old. Rachel saw success quickly as she became the Pan American Race Walk Cup Junior champion in 2005 in a Canadian Junior record of 47:37 for 10km race walk. After high school she went on to study at Fleming College in her hometown and studied business marketing. Her training continued through college and competed at her first IAAF World Race Walk Cup in 2006 in La Coruna, Spain. This was not only a big step for her as it was her first race at a world competition but she also met her future husband, Tim Seaman.

Once Tim and Rachel were married on October 31st, 2009, Rachel moved to San Diego and began training full time. Tim also began coaching Rachel in 2009 and she improved leaps and bounds. She competed at her first World Track and Field Championships in Berlin, Germany in 2009 and went on to compete again in 2011 in Daegu, South Korea. From there she had the Olympic standard in her sights and in 2012 she qualified for her first Olympic team in London where she competed for Canada.

After the Olympics, Tim and Rachel started a family and on April 26th, 2013 their daughter Isabella was born. Isabella really revitalized Rachel’s athletic career and she had her most successful season to date the year after she was born. Rachel holds 5 Canadian records (3,000m RW Indoors, 5,000m RW track, 10,000m RW track, 20km RW road and 10km Junior RW road). She is well on her way to qualify for the Olympics in Rio De Janeiro in 2016.