Claim: Athletics at the Summer Olympics includes contests.

Racewalking , or race walking , is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics . Although it is a foot race , it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times . This is assessed by race judges . Typically held on either roads or on running tracks , common distances vary from 3000 metres -LRB- 1.8 mi -RRB- up to 100 kilometres -LRB- 62.1 mi -RRB- .   There are two racewalking distances contested at the Summer Olympics : the 20 kilometres race walk -LRB- men and women -RRB- and 50 kilometres race walk -LRB- men only -RRB- . Both are held as road events . The biennial IAAF World Championships in Athletics also features the same three events . The IAAF World Race Walking Cup , first held in 1961 , is a stand-alone global competition for the discipline and it has 10 kilometres race walks for junior athletes , in addition to the Olympic-standard events . The IAAF World Indoor Championships featured 5000 m and 3000 m race walk variations , but these were discontinued after 1993 . Top level athletics championships and games typically feature 20 km racewalking events .   The sport emerged from a British culture of long-distance competitive walking known as pedestrianism , which began to develop the ruleset that is the basis of the modern discipline around the mid-19th century . Since the mid-20th century onwards , Russian and Chinese athletes have been among the most successful on the global stage , with Europe and parts of Latin America producing most of the remaining top level walkers .   Compared to other forms of foot racing , stride length is reduced ; to achieve competitive speeds racewalkers must attain cadence rates comparable to those achieved by world-class 800 metres runners .