Massimo Stano on the way to Olympic 20km race walk gold in Sapporo (© Getty Images)
Men's 20km race walk
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• No man has claimed two Olympic golds in this event but Massimo Stano defends his title
• Koki Ikeda has the world lead and third-fastest performance of all time
• Alvaro Martin looks to add to his two world title wins from Budapest last year
The men’s 20km race walk kicks off the athletics programme at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Featuring multiple global medallists and some of the fastest athletes of all time, there will be no easing in gently as the world’s best race for the first of the 48 titles that are on offer in the French capital.
Massimo Stano defends his title, Alvaro Martin lines up as world champion, Koki Ikeda starts as world leader with the third-fastest performance in history and Perseus Karlstrom aims to build on his World Race Walking Team Championships win in Antalya. And if any of those athletes falter, there are many other contenders ready to step up in an event that will be held on the Pont d’lena, with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop.
Stano achieved the first half of Italy’s Olympic 20km race walk double in Sapporo three years ago, holding off Japan’s Ikeda and Toshikazu Yamanishi. No man has ever claimed two Olympic titles in this event, but 32-year-old Stano will be even more motivated to do well following his recovery from the foot injury that caused him to pull up during the marathon race walk mixed relay in Antalya in April and ruled him out of the European Championships on home soil last month.
Prior to that, he had a strong start to his season as he set a national record of 1:17:26 to finish a close second at the Chinese Race Walking Grand Prix in Taicang in March. That race was won by China’s Zhang Jun, the Asian Games champion who recorded the same time as Stano to clinch victory.
With three athletes in the leading nine on this season’s top list, China fields another strong team in Paris, with Olympic eighth-place finisher Zhang joined by Li Yandong and Wang Zhaozhao.
Only one athlete has gone faster than Zhang and Stano this season and that’s Ikeda, whose 1:16:51 at the Japanese Race Walking Championships in Kobe in February moved him to No.3 on the world all-time list. After that, the Olympic and 2022 world silver medallist finished fifth in La Coruna and then claimed the runner-up spot alongside Kumiko Okada in the relay in Antalya.
The winner in La Coruna was his compatriot Yamanishi, the world champion in 2019 and 2022 and the Olympic bronze medallist in Sapporo. Yamanishi was disqualified during the race in Kobe, while Ryo Hamanishi and Yuta Koga were second and third respectively with PBs of 1:17:42 and 1:17:47, and it is Hamanishi and Koga who join Ikeda on the team for Paris.
Sitting between that Japanese duo on this season’s top list is Brazil’s Caio Bonfim, the two-time world bronze medallist who finished fourth at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
One place ahead of Bonfim in the runner-up spot in La Coruna was Spain’s Martin, who became the first gold medallist of the World Championships in Budapest and will want to achieve a similar feat in Paris. The Olympic fourth-place finisher went on to complete a golden double in Budapest as he added the 35km race walk title to his haul.
Martin contested the relay in Antalya and the men’s 20km champion on that day was Sweden’s Karlstrom, the four-time world medallist who won the European title in June. Karlstrom was ninth at the Olympics three years ago and set his national record of 1:17:39 when finishing second behind Martin in Budapest last year. Bonfirm was third that day, while Canada’s Evan Dunfee was fourth and Germany’s Christopher Linke was fifth, and they will all want to have a similar impact in Paris.
Others looking to continue their progression will be Martin’s Spanish teammates Paul McGrath and Diego Garcia Carrera, who claimed silver and bronze behind Karlstrom in Antalya, plus Australia’s Declan Tingay and Rhydian Cowley, and Peru’s winner in Dudince, Cesar Rodriguez.
Another major medallist seeking further success is Ecuador’s Brian Pintado, who claimed 35km silver in Budapest and won over 20km in Rio Maior in May.
Women's 20km race walk
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• Kimberly Garcia on track to add a first Olympic medal to her two 2022 world titles
• Antonella Palmisano defends her crown from Sapporo
• Double world champion Maria Perez continues her comeback after injury
Antonella Palmisano leads the 20km race walk in Sapporo (© AFP / Getty Images)
Multiple global champions will clash in the women’s 20km race walk as Antonella Palmisano defends her title, Kimberly Garcia looks to add a first Olympic medal to her two 2022 world titles, double world champion Maria Perez continues her comeback after injury three years on from finishing fourth in Sapporo and 2016 Olympic and four-time world gold medallist Liu Hong looks to add to her glittering CV.
The women’s 20km race walk was added to the Olympic programme in 2000 and athletes from four nations have gained gold in that time, the latest being Italy through Palmisano in Sapporo. The 32-year-old, who finished fourth at the 2016 Olympics in Rio before getting world bronze in 2017 and a medal of the same colour in Budapest last year, most recently won the European title in front of home fans in Rome. That followed a third place finish at the Podebrady Walking meeting where she clocked 1:27:27 – the third-fastest time of her career so far – to finish behind Garcia and Glenda Morejon.
Peru’s Garcia has shown great consistency this year, rebounding from the illness that caused her to drop out during her season opener in Dudince in March to win World Race Walking Tour competitions in Podebrady, Rio Maior and La Coruna, as well as triumph at the World Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya in April. Her winning time in La Coruna was 1:26:41, just one second off the national record she set in the Spanish city in 2023.
That makes her the third quickest athlete this year among the entries, behind Ma Zhenxia and Yang Jiayu who join Liu in a powerful Chinese squad.
Ma, the 2022 World Race Walking Team Championships winner, finished second at the latest edition of the competition behind Garcia in Antalya after winning the Chinese Race Walking Grand Prix in Taicang in March in a PB of 1:26:07. Yang, the 2017 world champion and world record-holder with the 1:23:49 she set in Huangshan in 2021, was second in Taicang and sixth in La Coruna, three places behind Liu.
Paris will be a fifth Olympics for 37-year-old Liu, who has not finished lower than fourth in each of the four Games she has contested so far. Before her win in 2016, she was second in 2012 and fourth on her debut in 2008, and she was the bronze medallist behind Palmisano and Colombia’s Lorena Arenas in 2021.
Just missing the podium that day at the 2021 Games was Spain’s Perez, who won world 20km and 35km race walk titles in Budapest last year. She sustained an injury a short while after her double world title success and underwent surgery in November. After competing as part of the marathon race walk mixed relay at the World Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya in April, she made her 20km season debut in La Coruna, where she finished seventh. She then raced over 5000m a week later in May and has been focused on Paris since.
Another athlete looking to peak in Paris is Mexico’s Alegna Gonzalez, who finished fifth at the Olympics in 2021 and last year’s World Championships. She set a PB of 1:26:57 to finish second in La Coruna, where Brazil’s Viviane Lyra was fourth and Spain’s Laura Garcia-Caro was fifth, and they all clash again.
Other athletes to watch are Australia’s Jemima Montag, the world silver medallist who set an Oceanian record of 1:27:09 in Adelaide in February, plus Ecuador’s Morejon, who was sixth in Budapest, and Peru’s Evelyn Inga, the winner in Dudince.
Marathon race walk mixed relay
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• New event makes its Olympic debut in Paris
• Italy, through Francesco Fortunato and Valentina Trapletti, won at the World Race Walking Team Championships
• Entries include 20km race walk stars Kimberly Garcia, Massimo Stano and Liu Hong
China's Jun Zhang and Jiayu Yang compete in the mixed relay in Antalya (© Sergio Mateo)
After starring at the World Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya in April, the marathon race walk mixed relay makes its Olympic debut in Paris.
Held on 7 August, six days after the individual 20km race walk events on the opening day of athletics action at the Games, the marathon race walk mixed relay will feature 25 teams, each comprising one man and one woman, who will complete the marathon distance (42.195km) in four legs of approximately equal distance.
Each athlete will complete two legs of just over 10km each, alternating man, woman, man, woman. The event will be held on the same course as the individual events, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
All bar three of the available places for the mixed relay in Paris were earned in Antalya. Up to five of those 22 qualifying teams could be a second team from the same country, and Japan, Spain, Australia, China and Colombia each qualified two teams.
Italy emerged victorious, with Valentina Trapletti and Francesco Fortunato claiming a surprise win. The team competing for each nation in Paris will be confirmed closer to race day, but Trapletti and Fortunato are among the entered athletes, along with reigning individual Olympic 20km race walk champions Massimo Stano and Antonella Palmisano.
Koki Ikeda and Kumiko Okada finished second in Antalya to qualify one of Japan’s two teams for Paris, and while Ikeda will focus on the individual event, Okada is among those entered for the relay.
Spain’s Alvaro Martin and Laura Garcia-Caro were third in Antalya and they hand over to their compatriots Alberto Amezcua, Antia Chamosa, Raquel Gonzalez and Miguel Angel Lopez for relay duty in the French capital.
Others looking to make history and claim an inaugural Olympic marathon race walk mixed relay medal will be Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Ecuador and Peru. Among the potential team members are Jemima Montag for Australia, Caio Bonfim for Brazil, Evan Dunfee for Canada, Liu Hong for China, Glenda Morejon for Ecuador and Kimberly Garcia for Peru.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
