| 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: 1956 – 2020 Men 50 km: 1932 – 2020 Women 20 km: 2000 – 2020 |
| Olympic record | |
| Men | 20 km 1:18:46 Chen Ding (2012) 50 km 3:36:53 Jared Tallent (2012) |
| Women | 20 km 1:25:16 Qieyang Shenjie (2012) |
| Reigning champion | |
| Men | 20 km  Massimo Stano (ITA)50 km  Dawid Tomala (POL) |
| Women | 20 km Antonella Palmisano (ITA) |
Race walking events at the Summer Olympics have been contested over a variety of distances at the multi-sport event. There were three race walking events in the 2020 Summer Olympics: a men's and a women's 20 kilometres walk, and a men's 50 kilometres walk. The races were 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-Kilometer version was introduced at the 1912 Summer Olympics and it continued until 1952 (skipping three editions from 1928 to 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 was held continuously until the 2020 Olympics, except for a brief drop from the program 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 was never proposed as an Olympic event – it was the last on the Olympic athletics programme in which men competed, but women did not have an equivalent. The 50 km is also the longest distance race for an Olympic athletics event.[1] In April 2023, a new Marathon Race Walking Mixed Relay event was announced for the 2024 Games, replacing the men's 50 km event.[2]
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.[3] 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.[4][5]
