Race walking at the Olympics Race walking at the Olympics 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 metres race walk 3000 metres race walk The 3000 metres race walk is a racewalking event. The event is competed as a track race and was part of the athletics programme for women at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics until 1993. Athletes must always keep in contact with the ground and the supporting leg must remain straight until the raised leg passes it. 3000 meters is 1.86 miles. IAAF just ratified world records for women's indoor marks. On January 30, 1999, Claudia Stef of Romania set the 3000 m race walk world indoor record in Bucharest in a time of 11:40.33.