Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Women's 20 kilometres walk
| Women's 20 kilometres walk at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad | |||||||||||||
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| Venue | Pont d'Iéna and Champ de Mars road course, Paris[1] | ||||||||||||
| Date |
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| Competitors | 45 from 22 nations | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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The women's 20 kilometres race walk at the 2024 Summer Olympics is scheduled to be held in Paris, France, on 1 August 2024. This will be the seventh time that the event is contested at the Summer Olympics.
Summary
[edit]Russia has a long history of cheating, particularly with race walk athletes, so it was not significant to the Olympics that the fastest two times of the year were set by Russian athletes who were not invited to these Olympics. Next on the list Ma Zhenxia and Yang Jiayu shared the fastest time of the year with Ma getting the edge in a tight race at home in Taicang. 2022 double World Champion Kimberly García had three strong efforts earlier in the season, while returning bronze medalist Liu Hong had two. Defending champion Antonella Palmisano and reigning double World Champion María Pérez were several notches down the world list, perhaps not showing all their cards early in the season.[2]
As the sun rose higher than the early morning Men's race, 45 women started the race. The first five kilometres laps whittled the lead pack down to nine walking laps close to 4:18, then Yang dropped that to 4:14. Over the next three laps she opened up a 16 second lead and picked up a red card. While Yang dropped to low 4:20 pace, the rest of the field was struggling to stay under 4:30. By the halfway point, Yang had a 33 second lead over García and Alegna González. That was the last time García was in the chase group led by González, Jemina Montag, Ma and Pérez. Two more laps and Palmisano dropped out, while Pérez set out to pull back what was Yang's 44 second lead. With a 4:18, 4:14 and 4:05, Pérez brought the gap down to 20 seconds with 5K to go. With two laps to go, Pérez had pulled to within 15 seconds of Yang, while behind them Montag dropped the fastest lap of the race, 4:03 to grab her place on the podium, with Ma taken out of contention picking up her third red card, spending two minutes in the penalty box. Pérez, scared by her first red card and three more yellow paddle warnings, had to tamp down her aggressiveness. Montag had also picked up a red card on her fast lap but kept the pressure on Pérez.[3] Yang pushed her final lap down to 4:07 to take the gold by 25 seconds over Pérez, with Montag just 6 seconds back.[4]
This event has only been held in the Olympics seven times, but Yang won the eighth medal for China, the fourth gold. Under these hot and humid conditions, Montag improved upon her own Oceania continental record and in fourth, Sandra Arenas improved her own Colombian Record.
Background
[edit]The women's 20 kilometres race walk has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 2000.
| Record | Athlete (Nation) | Time | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| World record |  Yang Jiayu (CHN) | 1:23.49[5] | Huangshan, China | 20 March 2021 |
| Olympic record | Qieyang Shijie (CHN) | 1:25.16 | London, Great Britain | 11 August 2012 |
| World leading |  Elvira Chepareva (RUS) | 1:24.31[6] | Sochi, Russia | 27 February 2024 |
| Area Record | Athlete (Nation) | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Africa (records) |  Grace Wanjiru (KEN) | 1:30.40 |
| Asia (records) | Yang Jiayu (CHN) | 1:23.49 WR |
| Europe (records) | Vera Sokolova (RUS) | 1:25.08 |
| North, Central America |  Lupita González (MEX) | 1:26.17 |
| Oceania (records) |  Jemima Montag (AUS) | 1:27.09 |
| South America (records) |  Glenda Morejón (ECU) | 1:25.29 |
Qualification
[edit]For the women's 20 kilometres race walk event, the qualification period is between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024. 48 athletes are able to qualify for the event, with a maximum of three athletes per nation, by running the entry standard of 1:29.20 seconds or faster or by their World Athletics Ranking for this event.[8]
Results
[edit]The event took place on 1 August, starting at 09:20 09:50 (UTC+2) in the morning.[1][9]
References
[edit]- ^ Jump up to: a b "Paris 2024 - Olympic Schedule - Athletics", Olympics.com. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
- ^ https://worldathletics.org/records/toplists/race-walks/20-kilometres-race-walk/all/women/senior/2024?regionType=world&page=1&bestResultsOnly=true&maxResultsByCountry=all&eventId=10229535&ageCategory=senior
- ^ https://olympics.com/OG2024/pdf/OG2024/ATH/OG2024_ATH_C83V_ATHW20KMWALK----------FNL-000100--.pdf
- ^ https://olympics.com/OG2024/pdf/OG2024/ATH/OG2024_ATH_C77V_ATHW20KMWALK----------FNL-000100--.pdf
- ^ "All time Top lists – Senior – 20 Kilometres Race Walk women", World Athletics, 29 June 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
- ^ "Season Top Lists – Senior 2024 – 20 Kilometres Race Walk women", World Athletics, 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
- ^ "Records – 20 Kilomtres Race Walk women". World Athletics. 3 July 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
- ^ Sean McAlister, "How to qualify for athletics at Paris 2024. The Olympics qualification system explained", Olympics.com, 20 December 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
- ^ https://olympics.com/OG2024/pdf/OG2024/ATH/OG2024_ATH_C73V_ATHW20KMWALK----------FNL-000100--.pdf
- ^ https://olympics.com/OG2024/pdf/OG2024/ATH/OG2024_ATH_C32C2_ATH-------------------------------.pdf#page=51
