Ecuador’s Brian Pintado won the men’s 20km at the Paris 2024 Olympics, earning the first athletics gold medal of the Games.
The 29-year-old clocked 1:18:55 to earn his country’s first Olympic gold medal in athletics since fellow race walker Jefferson Perez won gold in this discipline at the 1996 Olympics.
Brazil’s Caio Bonfim took silver in 1:19:09 and world champion Alvaro Martin earned bronze in 1:19:11. Defending champion Massimo Stano of Italy finished one second shy of a medal in fourth place.
Like many classic championship race walk events, it was a race of attrition with the lead pack being whittled down to the final few contenders in the closing stages. Held along the Pont de’Iena bridge in the Trocadero area of Paris, with the one-kilometre loop course leading athletes under the Eifel Tower, the race got off to a steady start with China’s Zhang Jun leading a large pack through 5km in 20:19.
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