Athletics at the 1995 Pan American Games – Men's 20 kilometres walk Athletics at the 1995 Pan American Games – Men's 20 kilometres walk The men's 20 kilometres walk event at the 1995 Pan American Games was held in Mar del Plata on 18 March. Held on the track (50 laps), the two Mexicans and Pérez dominated the race as the others fell of the back of the lead pack. With two laps to go, the Mexicans used a team effort to box Pérez in behind a lapped walker, losing a couple of strides. A disgusted, future Olympic gold medalist, Pérez threw down his hat and took off in chase. Pérez caught
Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics not the venue for the opening or closing ceremonies in Rio de Janeiro – that honour went to Brazil's foremost soccer venue, the Maracanã Stadium. On the first day, the first gold medal was won by Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia, who broke a long-standing world record in the women's 10,000 metres by almost fifteen seconds. The race as a whole was historically fast, setting four of the five fastest times ever for the distance and seeing eight national records broken. China's Wang Zhen was the first male winner of the 2016 Olympic athletics, topping the 20 kilometres race walk podium.