# Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 kilometres walk

The men's 50 kilometres walk event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 6 August 2021 in Sapporo. 59 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).

## Background

This was the 20th appearance of the event: except for 1976, it has appeared at every Olympics since 1932. The reigning champion is Matej Tóth of Slovakia.
Due to the Olympics' movement towards gender equality (the 50 kilometres walk was the only men's event on the 2020 athletics programme with no women's equivalent) and declining fan attendance and TV ratings for the event, the men's 50 kilometres walk was replaced by a mixed-team marathon walk relay at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

## Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's 50 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 3:50:00. 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 31 May 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 50 kilometres walk.

### Men's 50km walk

| Qualification standard | No. of athletes | NOC | Nominated athletes |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 3 | China | Bian Tongda Luo Yadong Wang Qin |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 3 | Germany | Carl Dohmann Jonathan Hilbert Nathaniel Seiler |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 3 | Italy | Andrea Agrusti Teodorico Caporaso Marco De Luca |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 3 | Japan | Hayato Katsuki Masatora Kawano Satoshi Maruo |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 3 | Poland | Rafał Augustyn Artur Brzozowski Dawid Tomala |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 2 | Colombia | Diego Pinzón Jorge Ruiz |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 2 | Ecuador | Andrés Chocho Claudio Villanueva |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 2 | Finland | Aleksi Ojala Aku Partanen |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 2 | Guatemala | Bernardo Barrondo Luis Ángel Sánchez |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 2 | Mexico | Isaac Palma Horacio Nava |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 2 | Spain | Luis Manuel Corchete Marc Tur |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 2 | Ukraine | Ivan Banzeruk Maryan Zakalnytskyy |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 1 | Belarus | Dzmitry Dziubin |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 1 | Canada | Evan Dunfee |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 1 | France | Yohann Diniz |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 1 | Ireland | Brendan Boyce |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 1 | Lithuania | Arturas Mastianica |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 1 | New Zealand | Quentin Rew |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 1 | Norway | Håvard Haukenes |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 1 | Portugal | João Vieira |
| Entry standard – 3:50:00 | 1 | Slovakia | Matej Tóth |
| World ranking | 2 | Czech Republic | Vít Hlaváč Lukáš Gdula |
| World ranking | 2 | Hungary | Bence Venyercsán Máté Helebrandt |
| World ranking | 2 | Latvia | Arnis Rumbenieks Ruslans Smolonskis |
| World ranking | 1 | Australia | Rhydian Cowley |
| World ranking | 1 | Brazil | Caio Bonfim |
| World ranking | 1 | Canada | Mathieu Bilodeau |
| World ranking | 1 | Colombia | José Montaña |
| World ranking | 1 | Ecuador | Jhonatan Amores |
| World ranking | 1 | Finland | Jarkko Kinnunen |
| World ranking | 1 | Greece | Alexandros Papamichail |
| World ranking | 1 | Guatemala | Érick Bernabé Barrondo |
| World ranking | 1 | India | Gurpreet Singh |
| World ranking | 1 | Ireland | Alex Wright |
| World ranking | 1 | Mexico | José Leyver |
| World ranking | 1 | Romania | Marius Cocioran |
| World ranking | 1 | Slovakia | Michal Morvay |
| World ranking | 1 | South Africa | Marc Mundell |
| World ranking | 1 | Spain | Jesús Ángel García |
| World ranking | 1 | Ukraine | Ihor Hlavan |
| World ranking | 60 | 30 | Totals |

## Competition format and course

The event consisted of a single race.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic, and area records were as follows.
| World record | Yohann Diniz (FRA) | 3:32:33 | Zürich, Switzerland | 15 August 2014 |
| Olympic record | Jared Tallent (AUS) | 3:36:53 | London, United Kingdom | 11 August 2012 |
| Area | Time | Athlete | Nation |
| Africa (records) | 3:54:12 | Marc Mundell | South Africa |
| Asia (records) | 3:36:06 | Yu Chaohong | China |
| Europe (records) | 3:32:33 WR | Yohann Diniz | France |
| North, Central America and Caribbean (records) | 3:41:09 | Erick Barrondo | Guatemala |
| Oceania (records) | 3:35:47 | Nathan Deakes | Australia |
| South America (records) | 3:42:57 | Andrés Chocho | Ecuador |

## Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)
The men's 50 kilometres walk took place on a single day.
| Date | Time | Round |
| Friday, 6 August 2021 | 5:30 | Final |

## Results

| Key: | PB | Personal best | SB | Seasonal best | ~ | Loss of contact | > | Bent knee | TR 54.7.5 | Disqualified by Rule TR 54.7.5 |
| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | Dawid Tomala | Poland | 3:50:08 | |
| | Jonathan Hilbert | Germany | 3:50:44 | ~~ |
| | Evan Dunfee | Canada | 3:50:59 | SB |
| 4 | Marc Tur | Spain | 3:51:08 | >> |
| 5 | João Vieira | Portugal | 3:51:28 | SB |
| 6 | Masatora Kawano | Japan | 3:51:56 | SB |
| 7 | Bian Tongda | China | 3:52:01 | |
| 8 | Rhydian Cowley | Australia | 3:52:01 | PB |
| 9 | Aku Partanen | Finland | 3:52:39 | ~ SB |
| 10 | Brendan Boyce | Ireland | 3:53:40 | |
| 11 | José Montaña | Colombia | 3:53:50 | SB |
| 12 | Artur Brzozowski | Poland | 3:54:08 | ~ SB |
| 13 | Jorge Ruiz | Colombia | 3:55:30 | ~ |
| 14 | Matej Tóth | Slovakia | 3:56:23 | SB |
| 15 | José Leyver Ojeda | Mexico | 3:56:53 | ~ SB |
| 16 | Quentin Rew | New Zealand | 3:57:33 | ~ |
| 17 | Máté Helebrandt | Hungary | 3:57:53 | ~ SB |
| 18 | Diego Pinzón | Colombia | 3:57:54 | |
| 19 | Andrés Chocho | Ecuador | 3:59:03 | ~>~ SB |
| 20 | Bence Venyercsán | Hungary | 3:59:05 | |
| 21 | Wang Qin | China | 3:59:35 | |
| 22 | Dzmitry Dziubin | Belarus | 4:00:25 | SB |
| 23 | Andrea Agrusti | Italy | 4:01:10 | |
| 24 | Marius Cocioran | Romania | 4:01:43 | |
| 25 | Maryan Zakalnytskyy | Ukraine | 4:02:53 | |
| 26 | Jarkko Kinnunen | Finland | 4:04:28 | > |
| 27 | Jhonatan Amores | Ecuador | 4:05:47 | |
| 28 | Luo Yadong | China | 4:06:17 | |
| 29 | Alex Wright | Ireland | 4:06:20 | ~ SB |
| 30 | Hayato Katsuki | Japan | 4:06:32 | |
| 31 | Arturas Mastianica | Lithuania | 4:06:43 | |
| 32 | Satoshi Maruo | Japan | 4:06:44 | |
| 33 | Carl Dohmann | Germany | 4:07:18 | |
| 34 | Bernardo Barrondo | Guatemala | 4:08:34 | ~~> |
| 35 | Jesús Ángel García | Spain | 4:10:03 | > |
| 36 | Alexandros Papamichail | Greece | 4:12:49 | |
| 37 | Arnis Rumbenieks | Latvia | 4:13:33 | >> |
| 38 | Aleksi Ojala | Finland | 4:14:02 | > |
| 39 | Valeriy Litanyuk | Ukraine | 4:14:05 | > |
| 40 | Marc Mundell | South Africa | 4:14:37 | |
| 41 | Michal Morvay | Slovakia | 4:15:22 | |
| 42 | Nathaniel Seiler | Germany | 4:15:37 | |
| 43 | Vít Hlaváč | Czech Republic | 4:15:40 | |
| 44 | Horacio Nava | Mexico | 4:19:00 | >> |
| 45 | Mathieu Bilodeau | Canada | 4:20:36 | SB |
| 46 | Lukáš Gdula | Czech Republic | 4:33:06 | >>> |
| 47 | Claudio Villanueva | Ecuador | 4:53:09 | >> |
| – | Teodorico Caporaso | Italy | DNF | ~ |
| – | Rafał Augustyn | Poland | DNF | |
| – | Håvard Haukenes | Norway | DNF | |
| – | Luis Manuel Corchete | Spain | DNF | |
| – | Gurpreet Singh | India | DNF | |
| – | Ivan Banzeruk | Ukraine | DNF | >> |
| – | Luis Ángel Sánchez | Guatemala | DNF | ~~~ |
| – | Isaac Palma | Mexico | DNF | ~ |
| – | Yohann Diniz | France | DNF | |
| – | Marco De Luca | Italy | DNF | |
| – | Ruslans Smolonskis | Latvia | DQ | ~>>> TR 54.7.5 |
| – | Érick Barrondo | Guatemala | DQ | ~~~~ TR 54.7.5 |