Canoe Sprint at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Dates 15 – 20 August 2016
Medal Events 12

The canoe sprint competitions at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics were held at the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, which also hosted the rowing events. All flatwater events were considered canoe sprint events. Following the relatively substantial changes to the 2012 program, the 2016 edition remained the same, and most of the spots in both disciplines, awarded to the NOCs rather than individual athletes, were based off the results of the 2015 World Championships. There were eight events for men and four for women. The men raced over 200 metres in K1, K2, and C1, with the women contesting a K1-200 metre sprint. The other events were all over 1,000 metres.

The lagoon was a source of concern prior to the Games, due to the presence of pollution, masses of dead fish, and drug-resistant bacteria, but there were no problems reported during the tournament itself. Due to concerns surrounding systematic doping, four Russians, all male Belarusian sprinters, and all Romanian sprinters were banned from Rio.

Germany and Hungary, traditionally the strongest nations in sprint canoeing, exchanged places from their ranking in London as Germany took four gold medals (all in men’s events) to Hungary’s three (all in women’s events). Germany also won silver twice behind the Hungarians, leaving them the clear winners of the sprints, as Hungary was otherwise shut out of the podium. The only other nation to earn two sprint titles was Spain, which won the K1-1,000 and the K2-200, thereby doubling its historic Olympic canoeing title count.

Isaquias Queiroz became the first Brazilian to win three medals in one edition of the Olympics by taking silver in the C1-1,000 and C2-1,000 and bronze in the C1-200 in front of a jubilant home crowd. He was outdone, however, by Danuta Kozák of Hungary, who won the K1-, K2-, and K4-500 events, thus becoming the first canoeist to win three Olympic titles in one edition. Germany had three competitors, Sebastian Brendel, Max Rendschmidt, and Marcus Groß win two gold medals, while Gabriella Szabó shared Kozák’s gold medals in the K2- and K4-500.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Kayak Singles, 200 metres, Men Olympic 19 – 20 August 2016 22 22
Kayak Singles, 1,000 metres, Men Olympic 15 – 16 August 2016 21 21
Kayak Doubles, 200 metres, Men Olympic 17 – 18 August 2016 26 13
Kayak Doubles, 1,000 metres, Men Olympic 17 – 18 August 2016 24 12
Kayak Fours, 1,000 metres, Men Olympic 19 – 20 August 2016 56 14
Canadian Singles, 200 metres, Men Olympic 17 – 18 August 2016 25 25
Canadian Singles, 1,000 metres, Men Olympic 15 – 16 August 2016 19 19
Canadian Doubles, 1,000 metres, Men Olympic 19 – 20 August 2016 22 11
Kayak Singles, 200 metres, Women Olympic 15 – 16 August 2016 28 28
Kayak Singles, 500 metres, Women Olympic 17 – 18 August 2016 27 27
Kayak Doubles, 500 metres, Women Olympic 15 – 16 August 2016 30 15
Kayak Fours, 500 metres, Women Olympic 19 – 20 August 2016 56 14
247 (156/91) 48 (40/33)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Kayak Singles, 200 metres, Men Liam HeathGBR Maxime BeaumontFRA Saúl Craviotto
Ronny Rauhe
ESP
GER
Kayak Singles, 1,000 metres, Men Marcus WalzESP Josef DostálCZE Roman AnoshkinRUS
Kayak Doubles, 200 metres, Men SpainESP Great BritainGBR LithuaniaLTU
Kayak Doubles, 1,000 metres, Men GermanyGER SerbiaSRB AustraliaAUS
Kayak Fours, 1,000 metres, Men GermanyGER SlovakiaSVK Czech RepublicCZE
Canadian Singles, 200 metres, Men Yuriy ChebanUKR Valentin DemyanenkoAZE Isaquias QueirozBRA
Canadian Singles, 1,000 metres, Men Sebastian BrendelGER Isaquias QueirozBRA Ilya ShtokalovRUS
Canadian Doubles, 1,000 metres, Men GermanyGER BrazilBRA UkraineUKR
Kayak Singles, 200 metres, Women Lisa CarringtonNZL Marta WalczykiewiczPOL İnna Osipenko-RadomskaAZE
Kayak Singles, 500 metres, Women Danuta KozákHUN Emma JørgensenDEN Lisa CarringtonNZL
Kayak Doubles, 500 metres, Women HungaryHUN GermanyGER PolandPOL
Kayak Fours, 500 metres, Women HungaryHUN GermanyGER BelarusBLR

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Germany GER 4 2 1 7
Hungary HUN 3 0 0 3
Spain ESP 2 0 1 3
Great Britain GBR 1 1 0 2
New Zealand NZL 1 0 1 2
Ukraine UKR 1 0 1 2
Brazil BRA 0 2 1 3
Azerbaijan AZE 0 1 1 2
Czechia CZE 0 1 1 2
Poland POL 0 1 1 2
Denmark DEN 0 1 0 1
France FRA 0 1 0 1
Serbia SRB 0 1 0 1
Slovakia SVK 0 1 0 1
Russian Federation RUS 0 0 2 2
Australia AUS 0 0 1 1
Belarus BLR 0 0 1 1
Lithuania LTU 0 0 1 1