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
Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's 20 kilometres walk World and Olympic records stood as follows. Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's 20 kilometres walk The women's 20 kilometres walk at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was held on 19 August on a route along Pontal. The race took off as a pack, with María Guadalupe González on point but nobody exerting any force to take the lead. Always present near the front were the three Chinese athletes; World champion and world record holder Liu Hong, world silver medalist Lü Xiuzhi and Qieyang Shenjie. Towering over the lead group was Anežka Drahotová. After