1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 20 km walk (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	20 km walk
gender	Men
Attendees	21 athletes from 10 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground (start and finish)
Competition phase	November 28, 1956
Medalist Leonid Spirin ( URS )   Antanas Mikėnas ( URS )   Bruno Junk ( URS )

The Swede John Ljunggren, 1948 Olympic champion over 50 km , finished fourth.

Henry Laskau (USA) finished 12th.

The men's 20 km street at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was held on November 28, 1956. 21 athletes took part, 17 of which made it to the finish. The start and finish was the Melbourne Cricket Ground . This competition was held for the first time at the Olympic Games. It replaced the 10 km train walk.

The Soviet walkers achieved a triple success. Leonid Spirin won ahead of Antanas Mikėnas and Bruno Junk .

Swiss and Austrian walkers did not take part. The German walker Dieter Lindner was disqualified.

Existing records

World best	1:30:00 h	Josef Doležal Czechoslovakia	Prague , Czechoslovakia	July 25, 1956
Olympic record	Discipline Olympic for the first time - therefore no Olympic record has been set so far

Note: World records are not set in street walking because of the different track conditions.

Race course

Date: November 28, 1956, 2:50 p.m.

The walkers left the stadium after one lap on the cinder track and now had eight laps to complete on the streets around the stadium. Then it was back to the stadium to cross the finish line. The first Olympic champion on this distance was the Soviet walker Leonid Spirin with a winning time that was just one and a half minutes above the world record of the 1954 European champion in Bern over the 10 km distance, Josef Doležal. Doležal himself, one of the favorites in Melbourne , had to give up the race. Silver and bronze went to Antanas Mikėnas and Bruno Junk, both compatriots of the Olympic champion, so that there was a three-time Soviet success here.

The Soviet walkers achieved the only triple success in this Olympic walking.

Result

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Leonid Spirin	Soviet Union	1: 31: 27.4 h	first OR
2	Antanas Mikėnas	Soviet Union	1: 32: 03.0 h
3	Bruno Junk	Soviet Union	1: 32: 12.0 h
4th	John Ljunggren	Sweden	1: 32: 24.0 h
5	Stan Vickers	Great Britain	1: 32: 34.2 h
6th	Donald Keane	Australia	1: 33: 52.0 h
7th	George Coleman	Great Britain	1: 34: 01.8 h
8th	Roland Hardy	Great Britain	1: 34: 40.4 h
9	Giuseppe Dordoni	Italy	1: 35: 00.4 h
10	Ted Allsopp	Australia	1: 35: 43.0 h
11	Abdon Pamich	Italy	1: 36: 03.6 h
12	Henry Laskau	United States	1: 38: 46.8 h
13	Ronald Crawford	Australia	1: 39: 35.0 h
14th	Dumitru Paraschivescu	Romania	1: 39: 35.0 h
15th	Ion Barbu	Romania	1: 41: 37.8 h
16	Bruce MacDonald	United States	1: 43: 25.6 h
17th	James Hewson	United States	1: 46: 24.8 hours
DSQ	Josef Doležal	Czechoslovakia
	Lars Hindmar	Sweden
	Dieter Lindner	Germany
	Alex Oakley	Canada

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 138

Web links

• SportsReference 20km Walk , accessed October 5, 2017
• Official report p. 319f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 5, 2017
• Juegos Olímpicos Melbourne 1956, 20km marcha , published April 13, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed October 5, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 566 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report p. 284, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 5, 2017
3. ^ Official report p. 319, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 5, 2017