Kayak Doubles, 1,000 metres, Men

Unlike the 1980 American-led boycott, which had had a limited impact on the canoeing events, the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics severely depleted the field in the sport. This was noticeable in the men’s K-2 1000, as nations that had won two of the last edition’s medals and six of the last nine World Championship medals (including all of the gold ones) were absent. Spain was the only returning Olympic medalist, as well as the 1982 World bronze medalist, and brought two veterans, Herminio Menéndez and Guillermo del Riego, while Canadians Hugh Fisher and Alwyn Morris, who came in third in the K-2 500 in Los Angeles, were the only recent World runners-up, having taken silver in 1982. Austria, meanwhile, was represented by Werner Bachmayer and Wolfgang Hartl, the most recent World bronze medalists.

The opening heats were won by Canada (in a heat where Austria was third), twin brothers Matthias and Oliver Seack of West Germany, who helped relegate Spain to the repêchage, and the Swedish duo of Bengt Andersson and Karl Sundqvist. Spain made a comeback in the semi-finals by defeating West Germany and helping to eliminate Austria, while Sweden came second to the Italian pair of Daniele Scarpa and Francesco Uberti and Canada took the third heat. Canada took charge of the final and won its second Olympic canoeing title since 1936 (its first having come the day before from Larry Cain in the C-1 500) by a comfortable margin. The next two podium finishers were more of a surprise, as runner-up France’s crew of Bernard Brégeon and Patrick Lefoulon had only advanced to the semi-finals through the repêchage, while Australians Barry Kelly and Grant Kenny had not been considered medal contenders. Brégeon’s silver was not his only medal of the Games, as he had taken bronze in the K-1 500 the day before.