Doping violations have influenced almost all the editions of the world championships since their first edition and they involved many events.
The only cases where there was no violation were:
- the edition of Malmoe 1976 of the 50km race walk World Championships which at that time had been organized for the specialists of the long distance of ”heel and toe" event that had been excluded from the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games;
- the edition of Gothenburg 1995 in Sweden
To be honest, the first edition (Helsinki 1983) was not influenced by doping violations during the championships. But later on, Ben Johnson (CAN) and Diane Williams (USA) admitted to having used it also at the time.
Race walking events began to be involved in the edition of Athens 1997.
Since then it has been a crescendo.
In the following tables we will present the arrival orders in the field and the reallocation of the medals that took place later.
Athens 1997
In total there were seven cases of doping violations, four involving men and three women.
It was precisely in women (10km) that race walk with Olimpiada Ivanova (RUS) was influenced, second at the finish line behind Annarita Sidoti (ITA)
| Arrival order | Place | Reallocation of medals |
| | | |
| Annarita Sidoti (ITA) | 1 | Gold |
| Olimpiada Ivanova (RUS) | 2 | - |
| Olga Kardopoltseva (RUS) | 3 | Silver |
| Valentyna Tsybulskaya (BLR) | 4 | Bronze |
In subsequent editions of the World Championships in Edmonton 2001, Paris 2003 and Helsinki 2005, no doping violations affected race walk events.
Seville 1999
In November 2001 – following a lengthy investigation – it was revealed that the Russian Federation had decided to impose a two-year suspension on Skurygin (from August 1999) as he had failed a doping test after his victory. He was stripped of the title which was given to Ivano Brugnetti, who at 22 became the youngest ever winner of this event.
| Arrival order | Place | Reallocation of medals |
| | | |
| 50km men | | |
| German Skurygin (RUS) | 1 | - |
| Ivano Brugnetti (ITA) | 2 | Oro |
| Nikolay Matyukhin (RUS) | 3 | Argento |
| Curt Clausen (USA) | 4 | Bronzo |
Berlin 2009
The dark period of the world race walk begins with Berlin.
| Arrival order | Place | Reallocation of medals |
| | | |
| 20km men | | |
| Valeriy Borchin (RUS) | 1 | - |
| Wang Hao (CHN) | 2 | Gold |
| Eder Sanchez (MEX) | 3 | Silver |
| Giorgio Rubino (ITA) | 4 | Bronze |
| | | |
| 50km men | | |
| Sergey Kirdyapkin (RUS) | 1 | - |
| Trond Nymark (NOR) | 2 | Gold |
| Jesus Angel Garcia Bragado (ESP) | 3 | Silver |
| Grzegors Sudol (POL) | 4 | Bronze |
| Ordine di arrivo in gara | Posto | Riallocazione delle medaglie |
| | | |
| Olga Kaniskina (RUS) | 1 | - |
| Olive Loughnane (IRL) | 2 | Oro |
| Liu Hong (CHN) | 3 | Argento |
| Anisya Kirdyapkina (RUS) | 4 | Bronzo |
Daegu 2011
| Arrival order | Place | Reallocation of medals |
| | | |
| 20km men | | |
| Valeriy Borchin (RUS) | 1 | - |
| Vladimir Kanaikin (RUS) | 2 | - |
| Luis Fernando Lopez (COL) | 3 | Gold |
| Wang Zhen (CHN) | 4 | Silver |
| Stanislav Yemelyanov (RUS) | 5 | - |
| Kim Hyun-Sub (KOR) | 6 | Bronze |
| Ruslan Dmytrenko (UKR) | 7 | - |
| Sergey Morozov (RUS) | 12 | - |
| | | |
| 50km men | | |
| Sergey Bakulin (RUS) | 1 | - |
| Denis Nizhegorodov (NOR) | 2 | Gold |
| Jared Tallent (AUS) | 3 | Silver |
| Si Tianfeng (CHN) | 4 | Bronze |
| Sergey Kirdyapkin (RUS) | DNF | - |
| Arrival order | Place | Reallocation of medals |
| | | |
| Olga Kaniskina (RUS) | 1 | - |
| Anisya Kirdyapkina (RUS) | 2 | - |
| Liu Hong (CHN) | 3 | Gold |
| Elisa Rigaudo (ITA) | 4 | Silver |
| Qieyang Shenjie (CHN) | 5 | Bronze |
| Olena Shumkina (UKR) | 12 | - |
| Semiha Mutlu (TUR) | DNF | - |
Moscow 2013
In March 2019, the Russian Athletics Federation announced that Aleksandr Ivanov, due to deviations in his Athlete Biological Passport, would be suspended for three years with his results deleted from July 9, 2012 to August 17, 2014. He stands to lose not only his Moscow gold, but also a silver at 20Km from the European Championships. The case is still pending.
| Arrival order | Place | Reallocation of medals |
| | | |
| 20km men | | |
| Aleksandr Ivanov (RUS) | 1 | Case still pending |
| Chen Ding (RUS) | 2 | Silver - probaly Gold |
| Miguel Angel Lopez (ESP) | 3 | Bronze - probably Silver |
| Wang Zhen (CHN) | 4 | probably Bronze |
| | | |
| 50km men | | |
| Robert Heffernan (IRL) | 1 | Gold |
| Mikhail Ryzhov (RUS) | 2 | - |
| Jared Tallent (AUS) | 3 | Silver |
| Igor Glavan (UKR) | 4 | Bronze |
| Arrival order | Place | Reallocation of medals |
| | | |
| Yelena Lashmanova (RUS) | 1 | Gold |
| Anisya Kirdyapkina (RUS) | 2 | - |
| Liu Hong (CHN) | 3 | Silver |
| Sun Huanhuan (CHN) | 4 | Bronze |
| Olena Shumkina (UKR) | 19 | - |
| Ayman Kozhakhmetova (KAZ) | 53 | - |
Beijing 2015
Due to the deviations of the values on the biological passport, only Olena Shumkina (UKR) was subsequently involved who was ranked 42nd in 1:41:30.
Londra 2017
On August 30, 2019, the IAAF Athletic Integrity Units published in its August report the definitive sanction imposed on Igor Glavan (UKR) from 25 July 2017 to 24 July 2019.
The results obtained from 25 July 2017 are canceled.
On 13 August 2017 Glavan finished fourth at the World Championships in London.
The cancellation of this result has not yet been acknowledged by the IAAF in its Doha Statistics Handbook 2019, presuming for the timing related to the press.
With Beijing 2015 first, and with London 2017 then, the dark period of doping violation in world race walk seems to have ended.