Kayak Singles, 500 metres, Women

This was the 19th appearance of the event, the only event to have appeared at every Summer Games since the introduction of women’s canoeing in 1948. At the Tokyo Games, it was the second battle between the reigning world champion Lisa Carrington of New Zealand (who also won the 2015 World Championships and the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Games), and the reigning two-time Olympic champion, Danuta Kozák of Hungary, who finished third at the World Championships, after previously winning this discipline three times. Other medal contenders were Vulha Khudzena of Belarus, world champion in 2017 and silver medallist in 2019, and Emma Jørgensen of Denmark, the Rio silver medallist.

In the semi-finals, both Carrington and Kozák easily won their heats. Jørgensen qualified second behind Linnea Stensils of Sweden, and Tamara Csipes of Hungary won the fourth heat.

The much-anticipated showdown in the final between Carrington and Kozák was over by the halfway stage, with the New Zealander charging out to a big lead with Kozák stuck in a chasing pack. However, it was the other Hungarian, Csipes, who tried valiantly to drag Carrington back to the field and she eventually finished second. Jørgensen picked up the bronze medal and Kozák finished fourth. Carrington added the women’s K-1 500 gold medal to the K-1 200 and the K-2 500 she won two days before, to give her a grand total of six Olympic medals and making her the most successful New Zealand Olympic athlete of all time.

With her three gold medals in Tokyo, she joined the small group of sprint canoeists who had won three gold medals at a single Olympics. She was in the company of the Soviet Vladimir Parfenovich, her compatriot Ian Ferguson, and Kozák.