Kayak Doubles, 500 metres, Women

Since its victory in the women’s K-2 500 at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Hungary had won the event at every major international tournament except for the 2007 World Championships, almost always with Katalin Kovács and Natasa Janics. Its only defeat came at the hands of Germany’s Fanny Fischer and Nicole Reinhardt, who they would challenge to a rematch at the 2008 Games. Germany, with various lineups, was also the runner-up at the European championships from 2005 through 2007 and a bronze medalist at the 2008 European and 2006 World Championships. These two nations won their opening round heats and advanced directly to the finals, which the Hungarians won with ease. Poland’s Beata Mikołajczyk and Aneta Konieczna, the latter of whom had won bronze in this event at the last two Olympics, captured silver, while France’s Marie Delattre and Anne-Laure Viard, the 2005 and 2007 World and 2005 European bronze medalists, knocked Germany off the podium entirely by taking bronze. The Hungarians thus got their revenge on the Germans, who had kept them at a silver medal in the K-4 500 the previous day.