Races have been walked at distances as short as 3k (1.9 mi), at the 1920 Summer Olympics, and as long as 100k (62.1 mi). Records are especially noted for the 50 mile race walk (80.5K). The men's world record for this distance is held by Israeli Shaul Ladany, through his race of 7:23:50 in 1972 in New Jersey. He shattered the world mark that had stood since 1935.

Racewalking developed as one of the original track and field events of the first meeting of the English Amateur Athletics Association in 1880. The first racewalking codes came from an attempt to regularize rules for popular 19th century long distance competitive walking events, called Pedestrianism.  

Pedestrianism had developed, like footraces and horse racing, as a popular working class British and American pastime, and a venue for wagering. Walkers organized the first English amateur walking championship in 1866, which was won by John Chambers, and judged by the "fair heel and toe" rule. This rather vague code was the basis for the rules codified at the first Championships Meeting in 1880 of the Amateur Athletics Association in England, the birth of modern Athletics.  

With football (soccer), cricket, and other sports codified in the 19th century, the transition from professional Pedestrianism to amateur racewalking was, while relatively late, part of a process of regulation occurring in most modern sports at this time.

Racewalking is an Olympic athletics (track and field) event with distances of 20k (12.4 mi) for both men and women and 50k (31 mi) for men only. Racewalking first appeared in the modern Olympics in 1904 as a half-mile walk in the 'all-rounder,' the precursor to the 10-event decathlon. In 1908, stand-alone 1,500m and 3,000m racewalks were added, and-excluding 1924-there has been at least one racewalk (for men) in every Olympics since.