Kayak Doubles, 500 metres, Women

East Germany had won the women’s K-2 500 at the last three World Championships, twice with their entry to the 1976 Summer Olympics Bärbel Köster and Carola Zirzow. The defending Olympic Champion was the Soviet Union, who was also runner-up at the 1973 and 1975 World Championships and sent Nina Gopova and Galina Kreft, both seasoned international veterans. These two nations won their heats in both the opening round and the semi-finals, with Hungary’s Anna Pfeffer and Klára Rajnai taking the third heat in the latter portion of the competition. Pfeffer had multiple international medals in canoeing, including Olympic silver from the 1968 K-2 500 tournament and a World title in the same event from 1971, while Rajnai won a surprise bronze medal in the K-1 500 the day prior to this event’s final. These three nations were ahead of the rest of the pack in the medal round and were nearly neck and neck as they approached the finish line. The Soviet Union pulled just enough ahead to take gold by 0.54 seconds, while Hungary’s margin of victory for the silver medal was much smaller, a mere 0.12 seconds, over East Germany. Although Zirzow failed to earn gold in this event, she had already become an Olympic champion earlier in the day in the K-1 500.