# Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 20 kilometres walk

The Men's 20 km Race Walk event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea had an entry list of 53 competitors. Three athletes were disqualified, while one walker did not finish the race. The race was held on Friday September 23, 1988.

## Records

Standing records prior to the 1988 Summer Olympics :
| World Record | Mikhail Shchennikov (URS) | 1:19.08 | July 30, 1988 | Kiev, Soviet Union |
| Olympic Record | Ernesto Canto (MEX) | 1:23.13 | August 3, 1984 | Los Angeles, United States |
| Broken records during the 1988 Summer Olympics |||||
| Olympic Record | Jozef Pribilinec (TCH) | 1:19.57 | September 23, 1988 | Seoul, South Korea |

## Results

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | Jozef Pribilinec | Czechoslovakia | 1:19:57 | OR |
| | Ronald Weigel | East Germany | 1:20:00 | |
| | Maurizio Damilano | Italy | 1:20:14 | |
| 4 | José Marín | Spain | 1:20:34 | |
| 5 | Roman Mrázek | Czechoslovakia | 1:20:43 | |
| 6 | Mikhail Shchennikov | Soviet Union | 1:20:47 | |
| 7 | Carlos Mercenario | Mexico | 1:20:53 | |
| 8 | Axel Noack | East Germany | 1:21:14 | |
| 9 | Giovanni De Benedictis | Italy | 1:21:18 | PB |
| 10 | Guillaume Leblanc | Canada | 1:21:29 | |
| 11 | Simon Baker | Australia | 1:21:47 | |
| 12 | Daniel Plaza | Spain | 1:21:53 | |
| 13 | Ian McCombie | Great Britain | 1:22:03 | |
| 14 | Aleksey Pershin | Soviet Union | 1:22:32 | |
| 15 | Pavol Blažek | Czechoslovakia | 1:22:39 | |
| 16 | Martial Fesselier | France | 1:22:43 | |
| 17 | Jimmy McDonald | Ireland | 1:22:45 |
| 18 | Thierry Toutain | France | 1:22:55 | |
| 19 | Carlo Mattioli | Italy | 1:22:58 | |
| 20 | Jean-Claude Corré | France | 1:23:09 | |
| 21 | Sándor Urbanik | Hungary | 1:23:18 | |
| 22 | Erling Andersen | Norway | 1:23:30 | |
| 23 | Ricardo Pueyo | Spain | 1:23:40 | |
| 24 | Chris Maddocks | Great Britain | 1:23:46 | |
| 25 | Stefan Johansson | Sweden | 1:23:51 | |
| 26 | Hirofumi Sakai | Japan | 1:24:08 | |
| 27 | Yevgeniy Misyulya | Soviet Union | 1:24:39 | |
| 28 | Andrew Jachno | Australia | 1:24:52 | |
| 29 | José Urbano | Portugal | 1:24:56 | |
| 30 | Jan Staaf | Sweden | 1:24:59 | |
| 31 | José Pinto | Portugal | 1:26:33 | |
| 32 | Abdelouahab Ferguene | Algeria | 1:26:33 | |
| 33 | Héctor Moreno | Colombia | 1:27:06 | |
| 34 | Mohamed Bouhalla | Algeria | 1:27:10 | |
| 35 | Godfried Dejonckheere | Belgium | 1:27:14 | |
| 36 | Zdzisław Szlapkin | Poland | 1:27:23 | |
| 37 | Gary Morgan | United States | 1:27:26 | |
| 38 | Jim Heiring | United States | 1:27:30 | |
| 39 | Hélder Oliveira | Portugal | 1:27:39 | |
| 40 | Santiago Fonseca | Honduras | 1:27:41 | |
| 41 | Li Baojin | China | 1:27:57 | |
| 42 | Reima Salonen | Finland | 1:28:25 | |
| 43 | Lyubomir Ivanov | Bulgaria | 1:28:43 | |
| 44 | Timothy Lewis | United States | 1:31:00 | |
| 45 | Marcelo Palma | Brazil | 1:31:42 | |
| 46 | Jeong Pil-hwa | South Korea | 1:32:23 | |
| 47 | Tadahiro Kosaka | Japan | 1:32:46 | |
| 48 | Rafael Valladares | Honduras | 1:37:09 | |
| 49 | Jeong Myeong-o | South Korea | 1:40:09 | |
| — | Querubín Moreno | Colombia | DNF | |
| — | Ernesto Canto | Mexico | DSQ | |
| — | Joel Sánchez | Mexico | DSQ | |
| — | Marc Sowa | Luxembourg | DSQ | |