# Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 20 kilometres walk

The men's 20 kilometres walk event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 5 August 2021 in Sapporo. Approximately 60 athletes competed; the exact number was dependent on how many nations use universality places to enter athletes in addition to the number qualifying through time (no universality places were used in 2016). The reigning champion was Wang Zhen of China.

## Background

This was the 17th appearance of the event, having appeared at every Olympics since 1956.

## Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's 20 kilometres walk if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 1:21:00. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 60 is reached.
The qualifying period was originally from 1 January 2019 to 31 May 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period. In July 2020, World Athletics announced that the suspension period would be lifted for the road events (marathons and race walks) on 1 September 2020.
NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the 20 kilometres walk.

### Men's 20 km walk

Entry number: 60.
| Qualification standard | No. of athletes | NOC | Nominated athletes |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 3 | China | Cai Zelin Wang Kaihua Zhang Jun |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 3 | India | Irfan Kolothum Thodi Sandeep Kumar Rahul Rohilla |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 3 | Italy | Francesco Fortunato Massimo Stano Federico Tontodonati |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 3 | Japan | Koki Ikeda Eiki Takahashi Toshikazu Yamanishi |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 3 | Mexico | Noel Alí Chama Andrés Olivas Jesús Tadeo Vega |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 3 | Spain | Álvaro Martín Diego García Miguel Ángel López |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 1 | Australia | Dane Bird-Smith Rhydian Cowley |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 2 | Brazil | Caio Bonfim Matheus Corrêa |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 1 | Colombia | Éider Arévalo José Leonardo Montaña |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 1 | Ecuador | Andrés Chocho Brian Pintado |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 2 | France | Gabriel Bordier Kévin Campion |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 2 | Germany | Nils Brembach Christopher Linke |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 2 | Great Britain | Tom Bosworth Callum Wilkinson |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 2 | Guatemala | José Alejandro Barrondo José Ortiz |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 2 | Ukraine | Ivan Losev Eduard Zabuzhenko |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 0 | Ireland | Alex Wright |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 1 | Kazakhstan | Georgiy Sheiko |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 0 | Kenya | Samuel Gathimba |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 1 | Lithuania | Marius Žiūkas |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 1 | ROC | Vasiliy Mizinov |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 1 | South Africa | Wayne Snyman |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 1 | South Korea | Choe Byeong-kwang |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 1 | Sweden | Perseus Karlström |
| Entry standard – 1:21:00 | 1 | Turkey | Salih Korkmaz |
| World ranking | 1 | Germany | Leo Köpp |
| World ranking | 2 | Turkey | Şahin Şenoduncu Abdulselam İmuk |
| World ranking | 1 | Ukraine | Viktor Shumik |
| World ranking | 1 | Poland | Łukasz Niedziałek |
| World ranking | 2 | Colombia | Jhon Castañeda Manuel Esteban Soto |
| World ranking | 2 | Peru | César Rodríguez Luis Henry Campos |
| World ranking | 2 | Australia | Kyle Swan Declan Tingay |
| World ranking | 1 | Belarus | Aliaksandr Liakhovich |
| World ranking | 1 | Ireland | David Kenny |
| World ranking | 1 | South Africa | Lebogang Shange |
| World ranking | 1 | Slovakia | Miroslav Úradník |
| World ranking | 1 | Brazil | Lucas Mazzo |
| World ranking | 1 | United States | Nick Christie |
| Total | 60 | | |

## Competition format and course

The event consists of a single race.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic, and area records were as follows.
| World record | Yusuke Suzuki (JPN) | 1:16:36 | Nomi, Japan | 15 March 2015 |
| Olympic record | Chen Ding (CHN) | 1:18.46 | London, United Kingdom | 4 August 2012 |
| Area | Time | Athlete | Nation |
| Africa (records) | 1:19:02 | Hatem Ghoula | Tunisia |
| Asia (records) | 1:16:36 WR | Yusuke Suzuki | Japan |
| Europe (records) | 1:17:02 | Yohann Diniz | France |
| North, Central America and Caribbean (records) | 1:17:46 | Julio René Martínez | Guatemala |
| Oceania (records) | 1:17:33 | Nathan Deakes | Australia |
| South America (records) | 1:17:21 | Jefferson Pérez | Ecuador |

## Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)
The men's 20 kilometres walk took place on a single day.
| Date | Time | Round |
| Thursday, 5 August 2021 | 16:30 | Final |

## Results

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Time behind | Notes |
| | Massimo Stano | Italy | 1:21:05 | | |
| | Koki Ikeda | Japan | 1:21:14 | +0:09 | |
| | Toshikazu Yamanishi | Japan | 1:21:28 | +0:23 | |
| 4 | Álvaro Martín | Spain | 1:21:46 | +0:41 | |
| 5 | Christopher Linke | Germany | 1:21:50 | +0:45 | |
| 6 | Diego García | Spain | 1:21:57 | +0:52 | |
| 7 | Wang Kaihua | China | 1:22:03 | +0:58 | |
| 8 | Zhang Jun | China | 1:22:16 | +1:11 | |
| 9 | Perseus Karlström | Sweden | 1:22:29 | +1:24 | |
| 10 | Callum Wilkinson | Great Britain | 1:22:38 | +1:33 | |
| 11 | Andrés Olivas | Mexico | 1:22:46 | +1:41 | |
| 12 | Brian Pintado | Ecuador | 1:22:54 | +1:49 | |
| 13 | Caio Bonfim | Brazil | 1:23:21 | +2:16 | |
| 14 | Manuel Esteban Soto | Colombia | 1:23:32 | +2:27 | |
| 15 | Francesco Fortunato | Italy | 1:23:43 | +2:38 | |
| 16 | Kévin Campion | France | 1:23:53 | +2:48 | SB |
| 17 | Declan Tingay | Australia | 1:24:00 | +2:55 | PB |
| 18 | Éider Arévalo | Colombia | 1:24:10 | +3:05 | |
| 19 | David Hurtado | Ecuador | 1:24:31 | +3:26 | |
| 20 | Wayne Snyman | South Africa | 1:24:33 | +3:28 | |
| 21 | César Rodríguez | Peru | 1:24:40 | +3:35 | |
| 22 | Leo Kopp | Germany | 1:24:46 | +3:41 | |
| 23 | Sandeep Kumar | India | 1:25:07 | +4:02 | |
| 24 | Gabriel Bordier | France | 1:25:23 | +4:18 | |
| 25 | Tom Bosworth | Great Britain | 1:25:57 | +4:52 | |
| 26 | Cai Zelin | China | 1:26:39 | +5:34 | |
| 27 | Jhon Castañeda | Colombia | 1:26:41 | +5:36 | |
| 28 | Nils Brembach | Germany | 1:26:45 | +5:40 | |
| 29 | David Kenny | Ireland | 1:26:54 | +5:49 | |
| 30 | José Oswaldo Calel | Guatemala | 1:26:55 | +5:50 | |
| 31 | Miguel Ángel López | Spain | 1:27:12 | +6:07 | |
| 32 | Eiki Takahashi | Japan | 1:27:29 | +6:24 | |
| 33 | Marius Žiūkas | Lithuania | 1:27:35 | +6:30 | |
| 34 | Şahin Şenoduncu | Turkey | 1:27:39 | +6:34 | |
| 35 | Jordy Jiménez | Ecuador | 1:27:52 | +6:47 | |
| 36 | Kyle Swan | Australia | 1:27:55 | +6:50 | |
| 37 | Choe Byeong-kwang | South Korea | 1:28:12 | +7:07 | SB |
| 38 | Noel Alí Chama | Mexico | 1:28:23 | +7:18 | |
| 39 | Georgiy Sheiko | Kazakhstan | 1:28:38 | +7:33 | |
| 40 | José Ortiz | Guatemala | 1:28:57 | +7:52 | |
| 41 | Miroslav Úradník | Slovakia | 1:29:25 | +8:20 | |
| 42 | Jesús Tadeo Vega | Mexico | 1:30:37 | +9:32 | |
| 43 | Luis Henry Campos | Peru | 1:30:58 | +9:53 | |
| 44 | Federico Tontodonati | Italy | 1:31:19 | +10:14 | |
| 45 | Aliaksandr Liakhovich | Belarus | 1:31:28 | +10:23 | |
| 46 | Matheus Correa | Brazil | 1:31:47 | +10:42 | |
| 47 | Rahul Rohilla | India | 1:32:06 | +11:01 | |
| 48 | Abdulselam İmük | Turkey | 1:32:27 | +11:22 | |
| 49 | Ivan Losev | Ukraine | 1:33:26 | +12:21 | |
| 50 | Nick Christie | United States | 1:34:37 | +13:32 | |
| 51 | Irfan Kolothum Thodi | India | 1:34:41 | +13:36 | SB |
| 52 | Eduard Zabuzhenko | Ukraine | 1:39:38 | +18:33 | |
| — | Lucas Mazzo | Brazil | Did not finish | Did not finish | |
| — | Łukasz Niedziałek | Poland | Did not finish | Did not finish | |
| — | Salih Korkmaz | Turkey | Did not finish | Did not finish | |
| — | Vasiliy Mizinov | ROC | Disqualified | Disqualified | |
| — | José Alejandro Barrondo | Guatemala | Disqualified | Disqualified | |