20 kilometres Race Walk, Men

Volodymyr Holubnychiy won his third consecutive medal in the event, repeating his gold medal from 1960. But it did not come easy and the finish was the closest ever in the Olympics for this race. Entering the stadium, Holubnychiy had a slight lead over his teammate, Nikolay Smaga, but Mexico’s José Pedraza was only 30 metres behind as they got onto the track. The Mexican fans went crazy, cheering for Pedraza, who began closing quickly on the Soviets, with a technique that was of marginal legality. But no judge would have been brave enough to red flag Pedraza in front of 80,000 cheering spectators. Pedraza caught Smaga on the last turn and then began closing on Holubnychiy, and was by now in almost a full sprint. But Holubnychiy held off Pedraza, saving the officials from making a difficult decision. The three medalists finished within five seconds of one another.