Kayak Singles, 1,000 metres, Men

Sweden’s Gert Fredriksson had won the K-1 1000 at the last three editions of the Olympic Games, as well as the 1950 and 1954 World Championships, but his dominance in the event had been challenged since 1956. Most notably, he had lost the World title to Stefan Kapłaniak of Poland in 1958, a nation that was represented by Ryszard Skwarski at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Nonetheless, Fredriksson was still a force to be reckoned with, and there were no obvious usurpers among the field in Rome. In the opening round, however, he was the slowest automatic qualifier, losing his heat to both Ibragim Khasanov of the Soviet Union and Chick Weijzen of the Netherlands. Denmark’s Erik Hansen, meanwhile, surprised spectators as he set an Olympic record by finishing over four and a half seconds ahead of his nearest competitor, Ronald Rhodes of Great Britain, while Imre Szöllősi of Hungary was victorious in the third heat. Hansen and Szöllősi were only 0.4 seconds apart in winning their semi-final heats, but still five seconds ahead of their closest competition. Rhodes, meanwhile, took the third heat. The final was much closer, but Fredriksson could not keep up with the pace set by the Dane and the Hungarian, the former of whom took gold in Olympic record time. Szöllősi captured silver while Fredriksson, the three-time Olympic champion, was forced to settle for bronze, and even that was nearly taken by Khasanov at the finish line. Szöllősi’s medal was not his only one of the tournament: he was also runner-up in the K-1 4 x 500 metres relay.