Canadian Singles, 1,000 metres, Men

Hungarian Tibor Tatai was the reigning Olympic and World Champion, as well as the last European bronze medalist (the tournament had been discontinued after 1969), but he left the job of defending Hungary’s title at the 1972 Summer Games to Tamás Wichmann, the final European Champion. Poland’s Jerzy Opara and Czechoslovakia’s Jiří Čtvrtečka, the most recent World silver and bronze medalists respectively, were present in Munich, as was West Germany’s Detlef Lewe, the defending Olympic runner-up. Lewe and Wichmann won the opening heats, with the latter doing so in the faster time and sending Čtvrtečka to the repêchage in the process. The final round, however, was dominated by Ivan Patzaichin of Romania, who set his second Olympic record of the Games as he won the gold medal, his first having come in the repêchage. Wichmann came in for silver over three and a half seconds later, while Lewe took bronze. Patzaichin, a 1968 Olympic champion in the C-2 1000, also won silver in that event in Munich.