| | Event type
20 kilometres Race Walk, Men
| Date | 28 November 1956 — 14:50 |
|---|---|
| Status | Olympic |
| Location | Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Victoria |
| Participants | 21 from 10 countries |
Because of the difficulty judging the 10 kilometre walk, it was replaced by the longer 20 km. distance for the 1956 Olympics, and this would become one of the standard Olympic walk events. The Soviet Union walkers pulled off the only medal sweep in Olympic walking history, Leonid Spirin leading his countrymen Antanas Mikėnas and Bruno Junk across the line.
| Pos | Nr | Walker | NOC | Time | Warnings | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 24 | Leonid Spirin |  URS | 1-31:27.4 | – | Gold | ||
| 2 | 23 | Antanas Mikėnas | URS | 1-32:03.0 | – | Silver | ||
| 3 | 22 | Bruno Junk | URS | 1-32:12.0 | – | Bronze | ||
| 4 | 16 | John Ljunggren |  SWE | 1-32:24.0 | – | |||
| 5 | 9 | Stan Vickers |  GBR | 1-32:34.2 | – | |||
| 6 | 3 | Don Keane |  AUS | 1-33:52.0 | – | |||
| 7 | 10 | George Coleman | GBR | 1-34:01.8 | – | |||
| 8 | 8 | Roland Hardy | GBR | 1-34:40.4 | – | |||
| 9 | 11 | Pino Dordoni |  ITA | 1-35:00.4 | – | |||
| 10 | 1 | Ted Allsopp | AUS | 1-35:43.0 | – | |||
| 11 | 12 | Abdon Pamich | ITA | 1-36:03.6 | – | |||
| 12 | 20 | Henry Laskau |  USA | 1-38:46.8 | – | |||
| 13 | 2 | Ronald Crawford | AUS | 1-39:35.0 | – | |||
| 14 | 14 | Dumitru Paraschivescu |  ROU | 1-39:57.4 | – | |||
| 15 | 13 | Ion Barbu | ROU | 1-41:37.8 | – | |||
| 16 | 21 | Bruce MacDonald | USA | 1-43:25.6 | – | |||
| 17 | 19 | James Hewson | USA | 1-46:24.8 | – | |||
| 5 | Josef Doležal |  TCH | – | – | ||||
| 15 | Lars Hindmar | SWE | – | – | ||||
| 7 | Dieter Lindner |  GER | – | – | ||||
| 4 | Alex Oakley |  CAN | – | – | ||||
| 17 | Gilbert Marquis |  SUI | – | – | ||||
| 18 | Gabriel Reymond | SUI | – | – | ||||
| 6 | Milan Skřont | TCH | – | – |