25 m Rapid Fire Pistol is one of the ISSF shooting events. The event has been a part of the Olympic programme ever since the beginning in 1896, although its rules changed greatly before World War II, after which they were only slightly changed until the two major revisions of 1989 and 2005. The latter conformed the equipment rules to those of 25 m Standard Pistol, thereby banning .22 Short cartridges as well as encircling grips and low trigger-pull weight. This caused a decline in results: the pre-2005 world record was 597, while the present world record is 591.

Instead of dropping specialized rapid fire pistols, manufacturers designed new pistols, such as the Walther SSP, conforming to the Standard pistol requirements, but optimized for the rapid fire event.