Canadian Singles, 1,000 metres, Men

Latvia’s Ivans Klementjevs had a strong pedigree in the C-1 1000, having been the 1988 Olympic and six-time World Champion, but he had lost the final at the 1992 Summer Olympics to Nikolay Buhalov of Bulgaria, whose speciality was the C-1 500. Hungary’s György Zala, meanwhile, had been third at the 1992 Games and runner-up at the 1990 World Championships and all three had a good chance to make the podium in Atlanta. It was Martin Doktor of the Czech Republic, however, the 1995 World runner-up, who posted the fastest time in the opening round, helping to relegate both Klementjevs and Buhalov to the semi-finals while Zala took the other heat. Klementjevs and Buhalov were in the same semi-final heat, which the former won while the latter struggled and qualified for the final by being the fastest third-place finisher by only 0.158 seconds. The final came down to a battle between Klementjevs and Doktor, from which the latter emerged victorious in an Olympic record time, leaving the Latvian once again a runner-up. Doktor would go on to become a double Olympic champion the following day by winning the C-1 500. Zala, meanwhile, repeated his bronze medal finish from 1992 by a comfortable margin.