Canadian Singles, 500 metres, Men

Unlike the 1980 American-led boycott, which had had a limited impact on the canoeing events, the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics severely depleted the field in the sport. This was especially noticeable in the men’s C-1 500, as the top five nations from the last edition were absent, as were those who had won eight of the last nine medals at the World Championships, the lone exception being Romania’s Costică Olaru, the reigning World Champion. This put him in an excellent position to win gold, but otherwise the field was wide open. Olaru posted the fastest time in the opening round, while Denmark’s Henning Lynge Jakobsen took the other heat. These two men also took the semi-final heats, with Canada’s Larry Cain nabbing the third. Cain was surprisingly dominant in the final, and won gold nearly a second and a half ahead of Jakobsen, who in turn was almost the same distance ahead of Olaru. The Romanian, meanwhile, had much more difficulty in fending off a challenge from France’s Philippe Renaud, and hung on to third place by a margin of only 0.09 seconds. Cain’s gold medal was Canada’s first in canoeing since Frank Amyot won the C-1 1000 in 1936, and would be followed up by Hugh Fisher and Alwyn Morris the next day in theK-2 1000. Cain and Jakobsen went on to earn medals in the C-1 1000 the following day, although they were demoted to silver and bronze respectively.