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
20 kilometres race walk mark who walked a then record time of 1:17:02 in Arles at the 2015 French championships. The women's world record of 1:24:38 was set by Liu Hong of China. Russian Elena Lashmanova, has served a previous ban for doping, currently holds a quicker time of 1:23:39 which is also the European record, but it has never been ratified as a world record. 20 kilometres race walk The 20 kilometre race walk is an Olympic athletics event that is competed by both men and women. The racewalking event is competed as a road race. Athletes must always keep in contact with