The huge sums now traded on election markets — more than $1.4 billion has been staked on this week’s US midterm contests, CNN reports — are a reminder of how gambling and public appetite for contests have long shaped popular entertainment. In the late 19th century a single wager tied to an election helped ignite a sporting craze: pedestrianism, a form of competitive long-distance walking that drew mass audiences.
At its peak, pedestrianism was less a niche pursuit than a mainstream spectacle. Crowds flocked to see ambling athletes test their stamina over hours and sometimes days, turning endurance into theater. Those events married athletic challenge with pageantry and excess: champagne flowed, stimulants such as cocaine were part of the scene, and promoters cultivated dramatic narratives to keep attention — all of which helped make the meetings social as well as sporting occasions.
Edward Payson Weston was the era’s standout performer. Described by contemporaries as part showman and part athlete, he talked and walked his way into public adoration and became one of the century’s best-known sporting figures. Weston’s ability to draw spectators and bettors alike exemplified the mix of personal charisma and competitive daring that propelled pedestrianism into the popular imagination.
The movement that briefly "ruled" the sporting world speaks to an era when organised sport, mass media and commercial promotion were reshaping leisure. Betting and spectacle helped elevate endurance walking from a test of will into a public phenomenon. Over time, pedestrianism receded as other forms of organised sport and entertainment grew, but its history remains a striking chapter in how crowd culture and wagering once combined to create sporting celebrities.