Canadian Doubles, 10,000 metres, Men

Canoeing’s 10000 metre distance events appeared for the last time at the 1956 Summer Olympics. Bronze medalists Egon Drews and Wilfried Soltau of Germany were the only 1952 Olympic podium finishers in the C-2 10000 to return to the 1956 edition, although France’s Georges Dransart had been a bronze medalist in 1948. Dransart was also the 1950 World runner-up and was partnered with Marcel Renaud in Melbourne. The reigning World Champion and runner-up was Hungary, although it was represented by a new duo of Imre Farkas and József Hunics at these Games, while the bronze medalist Czechoslovakians sent no one at all. This left no particularly strong favorites, although it was still somewhat of a surprise that the Soviet duo of Pavel Kharin and Gratsian Botev outperformed the entire field and won by a considerable margin over Dransart and Renaud. The Hungarians, meanwhile, came in for bronze, just ahead of the Germans. The C-2 10000 would not be Kharin and Botev’s only success in Melbourne, as they would take silver in the C-2 1000 the following day.