Kayak Singles, 500 metres, Women

Defending Olympic Champion Danuta Kozák of Hungary was the favorite to defend her crown in 2016, having won the 2013 and 2014 World and 2014 and 2016 European Championships. As was traditional in the event, however, there were no guarantees and Kozák had several considerable contenders to deal with in Rio. New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington, for example, had gradually advanced the podium in the Worlds from bronze in 2013 to silver in 2014 to gold in 2015 and had taken gold in the K-1 200 two days earlier. Germany’s Franziska Weber, meanwhile, had been consistent at the European Championships, finishing runner-up in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Finally, Ewelina Wojnarowska was worth noting as the 2015 European Champion.

In the preliminaries, Carrington won the first heat, while Kozák took the second, in which Weber was fourth. China’s Zhou Yu, the 2010 Asian Games Champion and 2015 World bronze medallist, was victorious in the third heat, while Wojnarowska finished behind Inna Osypenko-Radomska, formerly of Ukraine now competing in Azerbaijan, in the fourth. Osypenko-Radomska had taken bronze in the K-1 200 two days earlier, but more importantly was the 2008 Olympic Champion and the 2012 runner-up. Wojnarowska was then eliminated in the semifinals in a difficult heat where Carrington came second behind Marina Litvinchuk of Belarus. Zhou, meanwhile, finished third in a heat won by Kozák, while Weber and Osypenko-Radomska were the qualifiers in the last semifinal. In the final, Kozák had little trouble defending her crown, but the next six competitors were separated by only 0.668 seconds. In the end, the surprise silver medal winner was Denmark’s Emma Jørgensen, the 2016 European bronze medallist, who edged out third-place finisher Carrington by just 0.046 seconds. Carrington nonetheless became the first New Zealand woman to win multiple medals in any sport in a single edition of the Olympics.