10 kilometres Race Walk, Men

In the heats seven walkers were disqualified but the judging was felt to be arbitrary and inconsistent. The heats were won by the Estonian Bruno Junk (URS) and George Coleman (GBR), with defending champion John Mikaelsson trailing Junk in the first heat. But Mikaelsson prevailed easily in the final. The race for the medals came down to Junk and the bronze medalist from 1948, Fritz Schwab (SUI). And a race it was, as both athletes were clearly running on the final straight. But neither was disqualified, Junk edging Schwab for the silver medal. Because of the difficulty judging a relatively short walk, this was the last time the event was contested at the Olympics and it was replaced in 1956 by a 20 km. walk.