Race walking at the Olympics

Race walking
at the Olympic Games
Race walking; at the Olympic Games
	The 2004 Olympic men's 20 km walk final
Overview
Sport	Athletics
Gender	Men and women
Years held	Men 20 km: – ; Men 50 km: – ; Women 20 km: –
Olympic record
Men	20 km 1:18:46 Chen Ding (2012); 50 km 3:36:53 Jared Tallent (2012)
Women	20 km 1:25:02 Elena Lashmanova (2012)
Reigning champion
Men	20 km Massimo Stano (ITA); 50 km Dawid Tomala (POL)
Women	20 km Liu Hong (CHN)

Race walking events at the Summer Olympics have been contested over a variety of distances at the multi-sport event. There are three race walking events in the current Olympic athletics programme: a men's and a women's 20 kilometres walk, and a men's 50 kilometres walk. The races are held in a final-only format.

The first men's events came at the 1908 London Olympics, which featured 3500 m and 10-mile distances. A 10-kilometre version was introduced at the 1912 Summer Olympics and it continued until 1952 (skipping three editions from 1928–1936). There was also a one-off 3000 m walk at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics. The men's 20 km walk became the standard short distance for men in 1956 and has continued since then. The longer men's event over 50 km was first held at the 1932 Summer Olympics and has been held continuously until the present day, except for a brief drop from the programme in 1976 – the IAAF held a World Championship for the event in protest and it was restored.

The first women's event was introduced at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, 84 years after the first men's race. Held over 10 km for the first two editions, the women's event was extended to match the men's 20 km distance from the 2000 Sydney Olympics onwards. Women have never commonly competed internationally over 50 km, thus it has never been proposed as an Olympic event – as of 2012 it remains the only event on the Olympic athletics programme in which men compete, but women do not have an equivalent. The 50 km is also the longest distance race for an Olympic athletics event.^[1]

The Olympic records in racewalking were all broken at the 2012 London Olympics. In the 20 km walk Chen Ding holds the men's record of 1:18:46 hours, while Elena Lashmanova holds the women's mark of 1:25:02 hours. The men's 50 km record is 3:36:53 hours, set by Jared Tallent. Lashmanova's time was a world record – the first and so far only time a world record in racewalking has been set at an Olympic Games.^[2] Robert Korzeniowski is the most successful Olympic racewalker, having won the 50 km three times as well as the 20 km walk. Three other athletes have won four Olympic walk medals: Ugo Frigerio won three gold medals and a bronze in early competitions, Volodymyr Holubnychy won two 20 km walk titles as well as a silver and a bronze, and Jared Tallent won a gold medal in the 50 km along with two silver and a bronze.

The 1906 Intercalated Games, now not considered an official Olympic event, was the first venue for racewalking under the Olympic banner. Poor technique and judging significantly affected the 1500 m walk event, to the point where a rematch over 3000 m was added at short notice and judged by Constantine I of Greece.

Race walking has been particularly affected by doping, with many Russian world and Olympic champions testing positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs.^[3]^[4]

Medal summary[]

Men's 20 km walk[]


Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1956 Melbourne details	Leonid Spirin Soviet Union	Antanas Mikėnas Soviet Union	Bruno Junk Soviet Union
1960 Rome details	Volodymyr Holubnychy Soviet Union	Noel Freeman Australia	Stan Vickers Great Britain
1964 Tokyo details	Ken Matthews Great Britain	Dieter Lindner United Team of Germany	Volodymyr Holubnychy Soviet Union
1968 Mexico City details	Volodymyr Holubnychy Soviet Union	José Pedraza Mexico	Nikolay Smaga Soviet Union
1972 Munich details	Peter Frenkel East Germany	Volodymyr Holubnychy Soviet Union	Hans-Georg Reimann East Germany
1976 Montreal details	Daniel Bautista Mexico	Hans-Georg Reimann East Germany	Peter Frenkel East Germany
1980 Moscow details	Maurizio Damilano Italy	Pyotr Pochenchuk Soviet Union	Roland Wieser East Germany
1984 Los Angeles details	Ernesto Canto Mexico	Raúl González Mexico	Maurizio Damilano Italy
1988 Seoul details	Jozef Pribilinec Czechoslovakia	Ronald Weigel East Germany	Maurizio Damilano Italy
1992 Barcelona details	Daniel Plaza Spain	Guillaume LeBlanc Canada	Giovanni De Benedictis Italy
1996 Atlanta details	Jefferson Pérez Ecuador	Ilya Markov Russia	Bernardo Segura Mexico
2000 Sydney details	Robert Korzeniowski Poland	Noé Hernández Mexico	Vladimir Andreyev Russia
2004 Athens details	Ivano Brugnetti Italy	Paquillo Fernández Spain	Nathan Deakes Australia
2008 Beijing details	Valeriy Borchin Russia	Jefferson Pérez Ecuador	Jared Tallent Australia
2012 London details	Chen Ding China	Érick Barrondo Guatemala	Wang Zhen China
2016 Rio de Janeiro details	Wang Zhen China	Cai Zelin China	Dane Bird-Smith Australia
2020 Tokyo details	Massimo Stano Italy	Koki Ikeda Japan	Toshikazu Yamanishi Japan

Multiple medalists[]

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Volodymyr Holubnychy	Soviet Union (URS)	1960–1972	2	1	1	4
2	Jefferson Pérez	Ecuador (ECU)	1996–2008	1	1	0	2
3	Maurizio Damilano	Italy (ITA)	1980–1988	1	0	2	3
4	Peter Frenkel	East Germany (GDR)	1972–1976	1	0	1	2
4	Wang Zhen	China (CHN)	2012–2016	1	0	1	2
6	Hans-Georg Reimann	East Germany (GDR)	1972–1976	0	1	1	2

Medals by country[]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union (URS)	3	3	3	9
2	Italy (ITA)	3	0	3	6
3	Mexico (MEX)	2	3	1	6
4	China (CHN)	2	1	1	4
5	East Germany (GDR)	1	2	3	6
6	Russia (RUS)	1	1	1	3
7	Ecuador (ECU)	1	1	0	2
7	Spain (ESP)	1	1	0	2
9	Great Britain (GBR)	1	0	1	2
10	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	1	0	0	1
10	Poland (POL)	1	0	0	1
12	Australia (AUS)	0	1	3	4
13	Japan (JPN)	0	1	1	2
14	Canada (CAN)	0	1	0	1
	United Team of Germany (EUA)	0	1	0	1
	Guatemala (GUA)	0	1	0	1

Men's 50 km walk[]


Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1932 Los Angeles details	Tommy Green Great Britain	Jānis Daliņš Latvia	Ugo Frigerio Italy
1936 Berlin details	Harold Whitlock Great Britain	Arthur Tell Schwab Switzerland	Adalberts Bubenko Latvia
1948 London details	John Ljunggren Sweden	Gaston Godel Switzerland	Tebbs Lloyd Johnson Great Britain
1952 Helsinki details	Pino Dordoni Italy	Josef Doležal Czechoslovakia	Antal Róka Hungary
1956 Melbourne details	Norman Read New Zealand	Yevgeniy Maskinskov Soviet Union	John Ljunggren Sweden
1960 Rome details	Don Thompson Great Britain	John Ljunggren Sweden	Abdon Pamich Italy
1964 Tokyo details	Abdon Pamich Italy	Paul Nihill Great Britain	Ingvar Pettersson Sweden
1968 Mexico City details	Christoph Höhne East Germany	Antal Kiss Hungary	Larry Young United States
1972 Munich details	Bernd Kannenberg West Germany	Veniamin Soldatenko Soviet Union	Larry Young United States
1976 Montreal	not included in the Olympic program
1980 Moscow details	Hartwig Gauder East Germany	Jordi Llopart Spain	Yevgeniy Ivchenko Soviet Union
1984 Los Angeles details	Raúl González Mexico	Bo Gustafsson Sweden	Sandro Bellucci Italy
1988 Seoul details	Vyacheslav Ivanenko Soviet Union	Ronald Weigel East Germany	Hartwig Gauder East Germany
1992 Barcelona details	Andrey Perlov Unified Team	Carlos Mercenario Mexico	Ronald Weigel Germany
1996 Atlanta details	Robert Korzeniowski Poland	Mikhail Shchennikov Russia	Valentí Massana Spain
2000 Sydney details	Robert Korzeniowski Poland	Aigars Fadejevs Latvia	Joel Sánchez Mexico
2004 Athens details	Robert Korzeniowski Poland	Denis Nizhegorodov Russia	Aleksey Voyevodin Russia
2008 Beijing details	Alex Schwazer Italy	Jared Tallent Australia	Denis Nizhegorodov Russia
2012 London details	Jared Tallent Australia	Si Tianfeng China	Robert Heffernan Ireland
2016 Rio de Janeiro details	Matej Tóth Slovakia	Jared Tallent Australia	Hirooki Arai Japan
2020 Tokyo details	Dawid Tomala Poland	Jonathan Hilbert Germany	Evan Dunfee Canada

Multiple medalists[]

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Robert Korzeniowski	Poland (POL)	1996–2004	3	0	0	3
2	Jared Tallent	Australia (AUS)	2008–2016	1	2	0	3
3	John Ljunggren	Sweden (SWE)	1948–1960	1	1	1	3
4	Abdon Pamich	Italy (ITA)	1960–1964	1	0	1	2
4	Hartwig Gauder	East Germany (GDR)	1980–1988	1	0	1	2
6	Ronald Weigel	East Germany (GDR) Germany (GER)	1988–1992	0	1	1	2
6	Denis Nizhegorodov	Russia (RUS)	2004–2008	0	1	1	2
8	Larry Young	United States (USA)	1968–1972	0	0	2	2

Medals by country[]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Poland (POL)	4	0	0	4
2	Great Britain (GBR)	3	1	1	5
3	Italy (ITA)	3	0	3	6
4	East Germany (GDR)	2	1	1	4
5	Sweden (SWE)	1	2	2	5
6	Soviet Union (URS)	1	2	1	4
7	Australia (AUS)	1	2	0	3
8	Mexico (MEX)	1	1	1	3
9	New Zealand (NZL)	1	0	0	1
	Slovakia (SVK)	1	0	0	1
	Unified Team (EUN)	1	0	0	1
	West Germany (FRG)	1	0	0	1
13	Russia (RUS)	0	2	2	4
14	Latvia (LAT)	0	2	1	3
15	Switzerland (SUI)	0	2	0	2
16	Hungary (HUN)	0	1	1	2
16	Spain (ESP)	0	1	1	2
18	China (CHN)	0	1	0	1
18	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	0	1	0	1
20	United States (USA)	0	0	2	2
21	Germany (GER)	0	0	1	1
	Ireland (IRL)	0	0	1	1
	Japan (JPN)	0	0	1	1

Women's 20 km walk[]

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2000 Sydney details	Wang Liping (CHN)	Kjersti Plätzer (NOR)	María Vasco (ESP)
2004 Athens details	Athanasia Tsoumeleka (GRE)	Olimpiada Ivanova (RUS)	Jane Saville (AUS)
2008 Beijing details	Olga Kaniskina (RUS)	Kjersti Tysse Plätzer (NOR)	Elisa Rigaudo (ITA)
2012 London details	Elena Lashmanova (RUS)	Qieyang Shenjie (CHN)	Liu Hong (CHN)
2016 Rio details	Liu Hong (CHN)	María Guadalupe González (MEX)	Lü Xiuzhi (CHN)
2020 Tokyo details	Antonella Palmisano (ITA)	Sandra Arenas (COL)	Liu Hong (CHN)

Multiple medalists[]

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Liu Hong	China (CHN)	2012–2016	1	0	2	3
2	Kjersti Plätzer	Norway (NOR)	2000–2008	0	2	0	2

Medals by country[]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China (CHN)	2	1	3	6
2	Russia (RUS)	2	1	0	3
3	Italy (ITA)	1	0	1	2
4	Greece (GRE)	1	0	0	1
5	Norway (NOR)	0	2	0	2
6	Mexico (MEX)	0	1	0	1
6	Colombia (COL)	0	1	0	1
8	Australia (AUS)	0	0	1	1
8	Spain (ESP)	0	0	1	1

Defunct distances[]

Men's 3000 m walk[]

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1920 Antwerp details	Ugo Frigerio (ITA)	George Parker (AUS)	Richard Remer (USA)

Men's 3500 m walk[]

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1908 London details	George Larner (GBR)	Ernest Webb (GBR)	Harry Kerr (ANZ)

Men's 10 km[]

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1912 Stockholm details	George Goulding Canada	Ernest Webb Great Britain	Fernando Altimani Italy
1920 Antwerp details	Ugo Frigerio Italy	Joseph Pearman United States	Charles Gunn Great Britain
1924 Paris details	Ugo Frigerio Italy	Gordon Goodwin Great Britain	Cecil McMaster South Africa
1928–1936	not included in the Olympic program
1948 London details	John Mikaelsson Sweden	Ingemar Johansson Sweden	Fritz Schwab Switzerland
1952 Helsinki details	John Mikaelsson Sweden	Fritz Schwab Switzerland	Bruno Junk Soviet Union

Men's 10 miles[]

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1908 London details	George Larner (GBR)	Ernest Webb (GBR)	Edward Spencer (GBR)

Women's 10 km[]

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1992 Barcelona details	Chen Yueling China	Yelena Nikolayeva Unified Team	Li Chunxiu China
1996 Atlanta details	Yelena Nikolayeva Russia	Elisabetta Perrone Italy	Wang Yan China

Intercalated Games[]

The 1906 Intercalated Games were held in Athens and at the time were officially recognised as part of the Olympic Games series, with the intention being to hold a games in Greece in two-year intervals between the internationally held Olympics. However, this plan never came to fruition and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) later decided not to recognise these games as part of the official Olympic series. Some sports historians continue to treat the results of these games as part of the Olympic canon.^[5]

Two walking events were held on the track at the 1906 Games: a men's 1500 m walk and a men's 3000 m walk. The first final to be held was the shorter distance. American George Bonhag, an absolute walking novice who had competed in the 5-mile run, came away as the winner after Canada's Don Linden, the eventual runner-up, had given basic technical advice to allow him to compete.^[6]

The 3000 m walk was held two days later as a last minute addition to the athletics programme, which was approved and also adjudicated by Constantine I of Greece after the dissatisfaction with the initial race. The entire walking field, minus Bonhag and Linden, was rearranged for the competition. Britain's and Austria's were again disqualified in the final stages for running, leaving Hungary's György Sztantics as the winner by a large margin.^[7]

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1906 Athens	George Bonhag (USA)	Don Linden (CAN)	Konstantinos Spetsiotis (GRE)
1906 Athens	György Sztantics (HUN)	Hermann Müller (GER)	Georgios Saridakis (GRE)

References[]

Participation and athlete data

Athletics Men's 1,500 metres Walk Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-05-19.
Athletics Men's 3,000 metres Walk Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-05-19.
Athletics Men's 3,500 metres Walk Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-05-19.
Athletics Men's 10 kilometres Walk Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-05-19.
Athletics Men's 10 mile Walk Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-05-19.
Athletics Men's 20 kilometres Walk Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-05-19.
Athletics Men's 50 kilometres Walk Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-05-19.
Athletics Women's 10 kilometres Walk Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-05-19.
Athletics Women's 20 kilometres Walk Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-05-19.

Olympic record progressions

Mallon, Bill (2012). TRACK & FIELD ATHLETICS - OLYMPIC RECORD PROGRESSIONS. Track and Field News. Retrieved on 2014-02-07.

Specific

^ 50 Kilometres Race Walk. IAAF. Retrieved on 2014-05-21.
^ Mulkeen, Jon (2012-08-11). Lashmanova sets 20km Race Walk World record in London!. IAAF. Retrieved on 2014-05-21.
^ Wilder, Charly (16 June 2015). "Where Racewalking is King, the Antidoping Officials Are Busy". The New York Times.
^ "Banned Russian race walking coach still working with athletes, official says". Reuters. 24 January 2020.
^ 1906 Athina Summer Games. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-02-07.
^ Athletics at the 1906 Athina Summer Games: Men's 1,500 metres Walk. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-05-21.
^ Athletics at the 1906 Athina Summer Games: Men's 3,000 metres Walk. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-05-21.

External links[]

IAAF 20 kilometres walk homepage
IAAF 50 kilometres walk homepage
Official Olympics website
Olympic athletics records from Track & Field News

[1] 50 Kilometres Race Walk. IAAF. Retrieved on 2014-05-21.

[2] Mulkeen, Jon (2012-08-11). Lashmanova sets 20km Race Walk World record in London!. IAAF. Retrieved on 2014-05-21.

[3] Wilder, Charly (16 June 2015). "Where Racewalking is King, the Antidoping Officials Are Busy". The New York Times.

[4] "Banned Russian race walking coach still working with athletes, official says". Reuters. 24 January 2020.

[5] 1906 Athina Summer Games. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-02-07.

[6] Athletics at the 1906 Athina Summer Games: Men's 1,500 metres Walk. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-05-21.

[7] Athletics at the 1906 Athina Summer Games: Men's 3,000 metres Walk. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-05-21.

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v t 10 and 20 kilometres race walk at the Olympic Games
Summary
Men's 10 km	1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012
Men's 20 km	1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Women's 10 km	1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012
Women's 20 km	1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Other distances: 1908: Men's 3500 m walk • 1908: Men's 10 miles walk • 1920: Men's 3000 m walk

v t 50 kilometres race walk at the Olympic Games
Summary
Men	1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020