Canadian Doubles, 500 metres, Men

The men’s C-2 500 was held for the first time at the Olympics in 1976 and the Soviet Union, who had won the event in the last three editions of the World Championships, was favored to take the inaugural crown. The nation sent Serhiy Petrenko and Aleksandr Vinogradov to the Games, the latter of whom had earned gold at the two most recent World Championships. The duo won their opening heat, but Tamás Buday and Oszkár Frey, representing 1975 World bronze medalist Hungary, posted a faster time. The Hungarians, in turn, were defeated in the semi-finals by Jerzy Opara and Andrzej Gronowicz of Poland, the 1973 World bronze medalists. Romania’s Gheorghe Danielov and Gheorghe Simionov, the 1971 World Champions and 1973 and 1974 runners-up, won a second heat while the Soviet Union took the third. In the final, however, the Soviet resumed their international dominance and won gold nearly two seconds ahead of Poland, who settled for silver. Hungary, meanwhile, had to battle Romania for bronze, which it earned by a margin of only 0.49 seconds. Both the Soviet and Romanian crews would repeat their performance in the C-2 1000, capturing gold and bronze respectively.