The first women's event was introduced at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, 84 years after the first men's race.

Race walking has been particularly affected by doping, with many Russian world and Olympic champions testing positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs.

Some sports historians continue to treat the results of these games as part of the Olympic canon.

[6] The 3000 m walk was held two days later as a last minute addition to the athletics programme, which was approved and also adjudicated by Constantine I of Greece after the dissatisfaction with the initial race.

The entire walking field, minus Bonhag and Linden, was rearranged for the competition.

Britain's Robert Wilkinson and Austria's Eugen Spiegler were again disqualified in the final stages for running, leaving Hungary's György Sztantics as the winner by a large margin.