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 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 the first laps, Lu and her teammates