Kayak Doubles (K2), 1,000 metres, Men

Among Lars Glassér and Ingemar Hedberg’s many World Championship titles was one that they won together in the K-2 1000 at the 1950 edition. This made them the favorites in this event, although they would have plenty of challengers, including Norway’s Ivar Mathisen and Knut Østby, runners-up at the most recent World Championships and in the K-2 10,000 at the 1948 Summer Olympics.

Sweden posted the fastest time in the opening round, while Cees Koch and Jan Klingers of the Netherlands and Max Raub and Herbert Wiedermann of Austria won the other two heats. The Austrian duo had taken bronze in the K-1 4x500 metres relay and the K-2 500 at the 1950 World Championships, while the Netherlands had been the bronze medalist in the K-2 1000, albeit with a different crew.

The final came down to an exciting four-way race between Sweden, Austria, Finland’s Kurt Wires and Yrjö Hietanen, and Germany’s Gustav Schmidt and Helmut Noller, all of whom seemed to cross the finish line at the same time. A photo finish helped the judges determine that the Finns had emerged victorious, with Sweden in second, although, due to the limits on timing accuracy in that era, both recorded the same time. The Austrians had taken bronze 0.3 seconds later, while Germany was only another 0.4 seconds behind them in fourth.

This was Hietanen and Wires’ second Olympic title of the Games, having taken the K-2 10,000 the previous day, and was Wires’ third Olympic medal overall, as he had been the runner-up in the 1948 K-1 10,000 event.