Items19The creator’s order
  1. 1Ugo FrigerioUgo FrigerioBorn 16 Sept 1901Frigerio won three Olympic walking titles, the 3km and 10km in Antwerp in 1920 and the 10km in Paris in 1924, then added bronze over 50km in 1932. He was famous for his showmanship, reportedly asking the band to change tunes to suit his rhythm, but the titles rested on a smooth, legal action at a…0i
  2. 2Volodymyr HolubnychyVolodymyr HolubnychyBorn 2 Jun 1936Holubnychy, the Ukrainian who walked for the Soviet Union, won Olympic 20km gold in Rome in 1960 and again in Mexico City in 1968, at altitude, with bronze in 1964 and silver in 1972 in between. Four medals across 12 years in an event decided by both clock and judges is extraordinary consistency,…0i
  3. 3Maurizio DamilanoMaurizio DamilanoBorn 6 Apr 1957Damilano won the 1980 Olympic 20km in Moscow and then two world titles, in 1987 and 1991, the second at 34. His walking was admired for its legality and economy, a clean action that kept him out of trouble with the judges through more than a decade at the top. With Olympic bronze in 1984 and 1988…0i
  4. 4Kerry Saxby-JunnaKerry Saxby-JunnaBorn 2 Jun 1961Saxby-Junna set a string of world records and world bests in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when women's race walking was only just gaining championship status, and won Commonwealth gold in 1990. The women's walk did not join the Olympic programme until 1992, which limited the global titles…0
  5. 5Jefferson PérezJefferson PérezBorn 1 Jul 1974Pérez won Ecuador's first ever Olympic medal, 20km gold in Atlanta in 1996, aged 22. Twelve years later he took silver in Beijing, and in between he won three consecutive world titles from 2003 to 2007. That span of global medals, built on a high-cadence, compact action that judges rarely faulted,…0i
  6. 6Robert KorzeniowskiRobert KorzeniowskiBorn 30 Jul 1968Korzeniowski is the most successful Olympic walker of all: 50km gold in Atlanta, Sydney and Athens, plus the 20km title in Sydney 2000, making him the only man to win both distances at one Games. His career began with a judges' disqualification in the closing stages of the 1992 Barcelona 50km, and…0i
  7. 7Jane SavilleJane SavilleBorn 5 Nov 1974Saville's career contains the event's most famous disqualification. Leading the 20km at the Sydney 2000 Olympics in front of a home crowd, she was shown the final red card just before entering the stadium, with gold seemingly in reach. Rather than fade, she came back to win Commonwealth gold in…0
  8. 8Liu Hong (race walker)Liu Hong (race walker)Born 12 May 1987Liu Hong set the 20km world record of 1:24:38 in 2015, won Olympic gold in Rio and took world titles over 20km and, in Doha in 2019, 50km, a range no other woman has matched at that level. Her 2011 world title was awarded after the original winner was disqualified for doping. Small and very…0i
  9. 9Jared TallentJared TallentBorn 17 Oct 1984Tallent crossed the line second in the London 2012 50km behind Russia's Sergey Kirdyapkin, and nearly four years later Kirdyapkin's result was annulled for doping and Tallent was awarded the gold, receiving it at a ceremony in Melbourne in 2016. With further Olympic medals in Beijing and Rio, he…0i
  10. 10Yohann DinizYohann DinizBorn 1 Jan 1978Diniz set the 50km world record of 3:32:33 at the 2014 European Championships in Zurich, a mark unlikely to be challenged now the distance has left the championship programme. He won the 2017 world title in London by more than eight minutes and three European titles, yet his Olympic record is one…0i