Kayak Singles, 500 metres, Women

Denmark had led the call for women’s canoeing events to be placed on the Olympic program and it succeeded in getting one, the K-1 500, placed on the schedule for the 1948 Summer Games. It was little surprise, therefore, that this nation’s entrant, Karen Hoff, was the favorite. One half of all three of the medaling nations in the K-2 500 from London’s 1948 World Championships took part in the Olympic event: Hoff represented the champions, Růžena Košťálová of Czechoslovakia was sent by the runners-up, and Fritzi Schwingl of Austria competed for the bronze medalists. Košťálová and Hoff won their heats, while Schwingl was bested by both Hoff and Lida van der Anker-Doedens of the Netherlands. In the final, Hoff won the gold medal without too much trouble, while van der Anker-Doedens edged out Schwingl for silver by a margin of only 0.1 seconds. The Austrian settled for bronze while Košťálová struggled and finished fifth, over five seconds behind fourth-place finisher Klára Bánfalvi of Hungary.