Canoe Sprint at the 1960 Summer Olympics

The 1960 Olympic canoeing program was very different from the 1948-56 program. Women now had two events, a singles and doubles kayak event. Men no longer would contest events over 10,000 metres, so instead of eight events, there were only five men’s canoeing events in 1960. Men raced singles and doubles in both kayak and Canadian canoes over 1,000 metres. The fifth men’s event was a 4 x 500 metre kayak relay, the only time this event has ever been contested at the Olympics, although it was conducted at the World Championships from 1950-75. All events were considered canoe sprint events.

Seven athletes won two medals in sprint canoeing in Roma, led by the Soviet Antonina Seredina in the women’s kayak events, with two gold medals. Five different nations won gold medals, led by the Soviet Union with three, but Hungary won the most medals, with six to the Soviet’s four.

The canoeing program was held on Lake Albano in the Alban Hills of Lazio, 20 km southeast of Roma. The rowing events were also contested at this site in 1960. One innovation on the lake was the development of a buoy marking system, always referred to since as the Albano Buoy System.