| | Event type

20 kilometres Race Walk, Men

Date	31 August 1972 — 15:45
Status	Olympic
Location	Olympiastadion, Olympiapark, München
Participants	24 from 12 countries

The favorites were the two Soviet medalists from 1972, Volodymyr Holubnychiy and Nikolay Smaga, the 1971 European Champion, and the GDR’s Peter Frenkel and Hans-Georg Reimann, the Lugano Trophy champion in 1970 (and again in 1973). Frenkel and Reimann set the pace through 10 km., with Holubnychiy close. Frenkel was just too strong and pulled away from both Reimann and Holubnychiy. Holubnychiy got away from Reimann at 18 km. and won his fourth consecutive medal in this event – two golds, one silver, and one bronze.

Pos	Nr	Walker	NOC	Time	Warnings	Loss of Contact	Bent Knee	5 km (Pos)	10 km (Pos)	15 km (Pos)
1	326	Peter Frenkel	GDR	1-26:42.4	–	–	–	22:16.0 (=1)	43:57.0 (=1)	1-05:22.0 (=1)	OR	Gold
2	935	Vladimir Golubnichy	URS	1-26:55.2	–	–	–	22:18.0 (=5)	44:05.0 (7)	1-05:22.0 (=1)		Silver
3	339	Hans-Georg Reimann	GDR	1-27:16.6	–	–	–	22:16.0 (=1)	43:57.0 (=1)	1-05:22.0 (=1)		Bronze
4	348	Gerhard Sperling	GDR	1-27:55.0	–	–	–	22:19.0 (=7)	44:00.0 (=4)	1-05:28.0 (4)
5	959	Nikolay Smaga	URS	1-28:16.6	–	–	–	22:18.0 (=5)	44:06.0 (8)	1-06:00.0 (5)
6	301	Paul Nihill	GBR	1-28:44.4	–	–	–	22:17.0 (=3)	44:00.0 (=4)	1-06:03.0 (7)
7	735	Jan Ornoch	POL	1-32:01.6	–	–	–	23:11.0 (21)	45:50.0 (=16)	1-08:49.0 (11)
8	537	Vittorio Visini	ITA	1-32:30.0	–	–	–	22:36.0 (=14)	45:12.0 (11)	1-08:36.0 (10)
9	644	José Oliveros	MEX	1-32:40.6	–	–	–	22:33.0 (12)	45:02.0 (9)	1-07:52.0 (8)
10	1035	Larry Young	USA	1-32:53.4	–	–	–	22:27.0 (11)	45:07.0 (10)	1-08:34.0 (9)
11	684	Jan Rolstad	NOR	1-33:03.2	–	–	–	23:02.0 (19)	45:50.0 (=16)	1-09:08.0 (13)
12	637	Pedro Aroche	MEX	1-33:05.0	–	–	–	22:26.0 (10)	45:30.0 (13)	1-09:50.0 (=14)
13	383	Heinz Mayr	FRG	1-33:13.8	–	–	–	22:36.0 (=14)	45:44.0 (=14)	1-09:50.0 (=14)
14	283	Phil Embleton	GBR	1-33:22.2	–	–	–	22:34.0 (13)	45:22.0 (12)	1-08:56.0 (12)
15	981	Tom Dooley	USA	1-34:58.8	–	–	–	23:01.0 (18)	46:06.0 (18)	1-10:05.0 (16)
16	409	Wilfried Wesch	FRG	1-35:20.6	–	–	–	23:08.0 (20)	46:47.0 (21)	1-10:43.0 (17)
17	299	Peter Marlow	GBR	1-35:38.8	–	–	–	22:52.0 (17)	46:30.0 (=19)	1-10:59.0 (18)
18	605	Charel Sowa	LUX	1-36:23.8	–	–	–	23:47.0 (22)	47:46.0 (22)	1-11:56.0 (20)
19	995	Goetz Klopfer	USA	1-38:33.6	–	–	–	22:45.0 (16)	46:30.0 (=19)	1-11:50.0 (19)
20	192	Hunde Toure	ETH	1-43:11.6	–	–	–	24:21.0 (24)	49:28.0 (23)	1-16:11.0 (22)
21	652	José Esteban Valle	NCA	1-45:09.4	–	–	–	24:18.0 (23)	50:28.0 (24)	1-17:15.0 (23)
22	638	Ismael Ávila	MEX	1-45:45.4	–	–	–	22:20.0 (9)	45:44.0 (=14)	1-13:25.0 (21)
DNF	372	Bernd Kannenberg	FRG	–	–	–	–	22:17.0 (=3)	43:58.0 (3)	– (–)
DQ	939	Yevgeny Ivchenko	URS	–	–	–	–	[22:19.0] ([=7])	[44:02.0] ([6])	[1-06:02.0] ([6])
DNS	715	Tadeusz Gorzechowski	POL	–	–	–	–	– (–)	– (–)	– (–)
DNS	525	Fernando Ielli	ITA	–	–	–	–	– (–)	– (–)	– (–)
DNS	78	Aram Levonian	BUL	–	–	–	–	– (–)	– (–)	– (–)
DNS	502	Oscar Barletta	ITA	–	–	–	–	– (–)	– (–)	– (–)
DNS	453	János Dalmati	HUN	–	–	–	–	– (–)	– (–)	– (–)
DNS	459	Antal Kiss	HUN	–	–	–	–	– (–)	– (–)	– (–)
DNS	496	Shaul Ladany	ISR	–	–	–	–	– (–)	– (–)	– (–)
DNS	682	Kjell Lund	NOR	–	–	–	–	– (–)	– (–)	– (–)
DNS	838	Daniel Björkgren	SWE	–	–	–	–	– (–)	– (–)	– (–)
DNS	849	Stefan Ingvarsson	SWE	–	–	–	–	– (–)	– (–)	– (–)
DNS	855	Hans Tenggren	SWE	–	–	–	–	– (–)	– (–)	– (–)