TIM SEAMAN Events: Walks
Height:5-9
Weight:135
PRs:20 km
Walk - 1:22:02AR (2004); 50 km Walk - 4:05.35 (1998);
5 km Indoor Walk – 19:15.88AR (2006)
Born:May 14,
1972, North Kingston, R.I.
Current Residence:Chula Vista, Calif.
High School:
North Babylon (Long Island, N.Y.) '90
College:
Wisconsin Parkside '95
Coach:
Stephen Plaetzer
Agent:Self
Club:New
York AC
Career Highlights:Two-time Olympian; 5-time
U.S. 20 km champion (’98, ’00, ’02, ’04, ‘05); Eleven-time
U.S. Indoor champion; Four-time U.S. 20 km runner-up (’96, ’99, ’01, ‘03); 3rd
in 20 km at 2006 USA Outdoors; U.S. 20 km & 5,000m indoor record holder
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.
With his win, Seaman bettered the 10 national indoor
walk titles won by National Track & Field Hall of Famer Henry Laskau between
1948 and '57. Seaman
owns 39 overall national titles
at various distances
indoors, outdoors or on the roads. Seaman began
the 2008 Olympic year
recovering from a hip injury in late 2007. Seaman opened the 2006 season by
winning his 27th career national title, taking the indoor mile at the 99th
Millrose Games in New York City and winning the USA Indoor title in the American
record time of 19:15.88. In 2005 he showed his dominance in the U.S. in the 20
km and indoor race walks by winning his fifth U.S. Outdoor title and eighth U.S.
Indoor crown in 2005. Using a conservative race plan that saw him begin the 2004
Olympic 20 km race walk at the back of the pack, Seaman, the 2004 Olympic Trials
champion and American record holder, posted the fastest time ever by an American
in Olympic 20 km race walk competition. His time of 1:25:17 in warm, sunny
conditions put him in 20th place overall, after coming through the first 2 km in
47th. It 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...He ended his 2003 season with a bang by setting two road records in
two days at the Gehen Cup in Hildesheim, Germany. He placed third overall in the
5 km competition on September 13 in the new American record time of 19 minutes,
9 seconds...finished sixth in the 10 km race the next day in the new AR of
39:59...started out as a miler on his high school track team (PR 5:07): ‘The
walk is a high school event on Long Island, and we needed extra points, so the
coach asked me to do the walk”…the summer after his senior year, he won the
junior national title in the walk (10 km in 49:36.14), and was given a
scholarship to Wisconsin/Parkside, where he became the first 4-time NAIA race
walk champion in the history of the school…earned his degree in political
science…continuing in the sport after college, he says, was ‘most definitely a
financial sacrifice. I saw myself as having a 1% chance of making the Olympic
Team. It’s not a lot, but it’s something.’ He moved to Georgia, switched
coaches, and cut more than five minutes off his 20 km time in the next year: ‘I
was eating peanut butter and jelly for breakfast, lunch and dinner’…now training
at the Olympic Training Center…had surgery in October 1998 to fix a muscle that
was pulling away from his pelvic bone: ‘to stabilize the hip without decreasing
flexibility’…the surgery did not work and in November 1999 he had surgery again
in Milwaukee, where Dr. Richard Cattey discovered five hernias in his lower
abdomen.
2009: USA Indoor
champion (19:59.06)...USA Outdoor 20 km champ (1:26:14U.S. Leader)...USA 10 km
champ (42:56)...best of 1:26:14.
2008:
5th at Olympic Trials in 20,000m RW (1:31:35)…93rd at World Cup (1:38.11)…best
of 1:31:35. 2007:
1st at USA Indoors
(19:24.38)...USA Outdoor 20 km runner-up (1:28:18)...31st at World Outdoors (1:33:58)... 1st at USA 1-mile indoor
(5:51.18)...13th in 20 km walk at La Coruna (1:23:38)...2nd in 20 km walk at USA
Pan Am Race Walk Cup Trials (1:24:21)...ranked #2 in U.S. at 20 km...best of
1:23:38.
2006: 3rd in 20km at USA Outdoors
(1:29:56.84)...USA Indoor champion (19:15.88AR)...3rd at Hauppauge
(1:27:26)...ranked #3 in U.S. by T&FN...best of 1:27:26.
2005: USA Outdoor champion
(1:26:41, U.S. Leader)...USA Indoor champion (19:56.41)...31st at World Outdoor
Champs (1:29:58)...ranked #1 U.S. at 20 km by T&FN...best of 1:26.41.
2004: 1st at Olympic Trials 20km
race walk (1:25:40)... 2nd at 50 km Olympic Trials (4:08:06)…20th at Olympic
Games (1:25:17)…USA Indoor 5 km champion (19:30.59)…set American 20 km record by
placing 1st in Copenhagen (1:22:02)…ranked #1 in U.S. at 20 km, #2 at 50 km by
T&FN…bests of 1:22:02AR & 4:08:06.
2003: USA Indoor 5 km champion
(19:21.56)…runner-up at USA Outdoors 20 km (1:24:47)…U.S. 5 km champion
(20:32)…set new AR 5 km record of 19:09, and 10 km AR of 39:59 in two days’ time
in Hildesheim, Germany…4th at Pan American Race Walk Cup 20 km (1:25.24),
leading the U.S. to the team title…ranked #2 at 20 km in U.S. by T&FN…bests of
19:09AR, 39:59AR, 1:24:47.
2002: USA Outdoor 20 km champion
(1:26:41)…USA Indoor 5 km champion (19:46.40)…2nd at USA 20 km Road Champs
(43.27)…3rd at USA 50 km Champs (4:07:43)…13th at World Cup 50 km…ranked #1 at
20 km, #3 at 50 km in U.S. by T&FN…bests of 1:26.41 & 4:07.43.
2001: USA Indoor 5K champ
(19:29.96)…3rd at USA 50K champs (4:14:12)…2nd in USA 20K champs (1:26.15)…DQ
in 20K at World Championships…ranked #2 at 20K & #3 at 50K in U.S. by T&FN…bests
of 1:26.15 & 4:14.12.
2000: Won Olympic Trials 20kW
(1:25:41)...placed 40th at Olympics (1:30.32)...set AR in 20k twice; 1:24:25 in
Sacramento on Feb. 13, and 1:23:40 on Aug.19 in LaJolla, Calif. Also during his
20k record performance on Aug. 19, Seaman set the AR for 15K at 1:02:30...won
USA Indoor 5K (19:32.11)...ranked #3 (20km walk) in U.S. by T&FN...bests of
1:23:40.
1999: 2nd in 20K at USA Outdoors
(1:23:42)... 24th at World Champs (1:35:58)... won USA Indoor 6K
(19:45.04)...bests of 11:19.20 (3K), 39:43.85 (10K), 1:23:42 (20K).
1998: Won USA Indoor 5000W
(19:54.36)...3rd in USA 50K Champs (4:05:35PR)...won USA 20K Champs
(1:35.07.70)...did not finish 50K at Poza Rica...ranked #2 U.S. at 20kW and 50kW
by T&FN…bests of 1:35.07 & 4:05.35.
1997: 2nd in USA Indoor 5000W
(20:12.06)...3rd in USA Outdoors (1:29:59.09)...12th in World University Games
(1:34:41)...ranked #3 U.S. by T&FN... best of 1:25:59.
1996: 2nd in Olympic Trials
(1:30:27)... 4th in USA Indoor 5000W (20:38.87)...ranked #2 U.S. by T&FN... best
of 1:24:14. 1995:
6th in USA Outdoors (1:29:20.7)...15th in World University Games
(1:35:37)...ranked #6 U.S. by T&FN... best of 1:29:21.
1994: 7th in USA Outdoors
(1:31:18)...ranked #7 U.S. by T&FN...best of 1:29:27.
1993: 10th in USA Outdoors
(1:34:49)... best of 1:32:50.
