50 Kilometres Race Walk

How it works

The longer of the two Olympic race walking distances – and the longest athletics event on the Olympic programme – is the only athletics event at major championships still contested by men only.

Race walking differs from running because one foot must be in contact with the ground at all times. Failure to do so is known as ‘lifting’.

The rules also state that the advancing leg must straighten from the point of contact with the ground and remain straight until the body passes over it. Three violations of the rules during a race lead to disqualification.

The race is held on a road course. At major championships, walks often start and finish in the main stadium but there is a trend in recent years to having races finish in places of historic or scenic interest.

History

Race walking dates from the 17th and 18th centuries. The first competitors were the footmen who would run and/or walk by the side of their masters’ coaches. The aristocracy of the day began to stake wagers as to which of their footmen would win a race – some of which lasted for six days! – and the sport became an increasingly popular professional activity during the 19th century, when it was known as 'pedestrianism'.

Walking first appeared at the Olympics in 1904 with a half-mile race that was part of the 10-event ‘All-Around Championship’, an early forerunner of the Decathlon. Individual races, initially over shorter distances than are common today were introduced at the Intercalated Games of 1906 and, apart from the 1928 Amsterdam Games, have been a fixture at Olympic Games and IAAF World Championships ever since.

The 50km walk became part of the Olympic schedule in 1932, although it was not contested at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.

Did you know

The first man to complete the distance in under four hours was the Soviet walker Gennadiy Agapov, who clocked 3:55:36 in Alma Ata on 17 October 1965.

Gold standard

Russia currently are the pre-eminent nation with walkers from there being the reigning Olympic and World champions but the current European champion is France's Yohann Diniz and walkers from Australia and China also regularly make an impact at major championships.

Historically, Germany, Italy and Mexico have great traditions in walking and have won many medals on the global stage.