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Lorraine Ambrosino, 45, in Daegu, South Korea, last weekend. She had to go 15,000 miles round trip to see just how good she is in Racewalk and get home fast for work and family. This story shows competitive fire burns long after school days.
By Ray Glier
Lorraine Ambrosino, 45, a mom with a job, flew 7,590 miles one way to South Korea for a mere three-day stay. It was the kind of trip a business executive flying first class, or a tycoon with a private jet would make.
“Pretty much everyone that I told I was going for that short amount of time thought I was completely crazy,” Lorraine said.
Crazy had purpose.
Ambrosino, a teacher from Holtsville, N.Y., was not making the trek just for a chance at two gold medals in the Racewalk last weekend in Daegu at the World Masters Athletics (WMA) championships.
This was more about an athlete’s competitive fire still burning at 45.
‘How good am I?’
Lorraine had to find out, even if it meant a whirlwind 15,000-mile trip squeezed into economy class as a tall woman (5-foot-9).
“I was a world champion in Florida, and that was very exciting, but I almost felt like it wasn't a real world championship because a lot of people had trouble coming here with visa situations and whatnot,” Ambrosino said of the 2025 indoor world championships in Gainesville, Fla.
“In looking at the results of previous years, there wasn't a lot of international competition in Florida. I just had to see where I see where I stood among the other masters athletes.”
Like Florida in 2025 where she won two gold medals, Lorraine still stood higher…
…on the podium.
In Daegu’s oppressive heat and humidity, Ambrosino won the gold medal in the 10k road racewalk in the women’s 45-49 age group in one hour, five minutes and 50 seconds. That’s approximately 14,000 steps in almost 66 minutes in a sauna.
You cannot overstate the conditions in Daegu. A Masters athlete from the summer blast furnace known as Arizona wrote on Facebook that even he found it "close to unbearable". Officials tried to mitigate the weather with a 7 a.m. start, but 13 athletes in the 10k racewalk did not finish the race, presumably because of the heat. There was no breeze, zero, Lorraine said.
By Lap 3 of five laps on the 2K loop on the streets outside the main stadium, Ambrosino admitted she was considering it a win just to finish.
“It was brutal,” Lorraine said. “I knew time-wise it wasn't going to be what I had hoped for.
“I started to get dizzy on my fourth lap. Instead of panicking, I just tried to breathe and just finish standing up.”
Ambrosino finished standing up, but she had no idea where she stood in the final results moments after the race. All women, 35-and-older, raced together. Women 35 years old and 40 years old and the sensational American Snyder at 50 finished ahead of Ambrosino in the stretched out field.
“I had to call my coach,” Lorraine said. The coach, Erin Taylor Talcott., was in upstate New York at 7 p.m. on Friday, Eastern Standard Time 13 hours behind the time in Daegu.
“Looks like you’re on top,” Talcott said through the phone.
Katarzyna Kepinska of Poland was the nearest to Lorraine in the W45 class at 1:11.41.
Instead of an “I did it” quote when I asked what it meant to go all that way to satisfy a competitive itch, Ambrosino gave thanks to the community of Racewalkers who helped her pull through the heat and humidity.
“It was great to be out there with other people who appreciate what you do and what you've put into it,” she said. “It's always much more rewarding when you have that company and that camaraderie.”
Ambrosino wasn't always so enthusiastic about the sport. As a teenager, Lorraine thought racewalking was goofy, silly, ridiculous, all the above.
Ambrosino was a modest finisher as a runner in high school track meets. Her coach finally pulled her aside and said she would make a good race walker. The coach told Lorraine she could travel to the meets with the elite of the team, like the Penn Relays, if she took up race walking. She was not going to out-of-state meets as a runner, he said.
“He (Peter McNeill) saw an awkward, long and lean teen who had the flexibility and movement needed in the hips as well as the ability to clearly straighten legs during supported steps.," Ambrosino said.
Lorraine gave it a try and ended up as a high school national champion in 1999.
McNeill still comes to meets to watch and support Ambrosino. In turn, she has become a teacher, coach, and an engine for racewalk in New York and the U.S.
The effort she put into the trip to Korea is a teaching moment not just kids, but for older athletes.
Lorraine is a special education teacher in middle school and has two boys, 14 and 16. School starts next week. She traveled 18 hours to get to Korea and turned around after three days in country to get back to job and family.
All to scratch a competitive itch.
World champions in Women's Racewalk 50-54, Deb Bridges, Lorraine Ambrosino, and Karla Snyder.
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