On 5 November 1904, in the Valmiera area, at Jaunbrenguļi, Jānis Daliņš was born – the boy who turned race walking in Latvia into a stadium event. In 1932 in Los Angeles he won silver in the 50 kilometres – the first Olympic medal won by a Latvian athlete under Latvia’s own flag. Two years later in Turin, Daliņš became the first European champion in race walking, and his popularity in the 1930s was captured even in the foxtrot “Ak, kaut man Daliņa kājas būtu”.

Daliņš’s achievements came at a time when the young Latvian state also used sport as a language of international visibility. His Olympic silver and European gold made race walking one of the brightest sporting stories of interwar Latvia.