Canoe Doubles (C2), 500 metres, Women

Women were competing in Canadian events for only the second time at the Olympics, after Tokyo 2020. The defending champions in this event were the Chinese duo of Xu Shixiao and Sun Mengya. They were favored, having won the World Championships in 2019, 2022, and 2023, although they were only world ranked #2 coming into Paris. The #1 spot was held by the Hungarian pair of Bianka Nagy and Giada Bragato, but Bragato would not compete in Paris, as Nagy was accompanied by Ágnes Kiss.

Xu and Sun were dominant, setting Olympic best times in heat one of round one (1:54.45), the first semi-final, with 1:53.73, and in winning the final in 1:52.81. The Canadian double of Sloan Mackenzie and Katie Vincent bettered China’s round one best time with 1:54.16 in heat two, and also won the second semi-final, but they were no match in the final for the Chinese pair, as Xu and Sun defended their gold medal by almost 1½ seconds over the Ukrainian pair of Liudmyla Luzan and Anastasiya Rybachok, with Mackenzie and Vincent taking bronze.

The medal podium was almost exactly the same as it had been at Tokyo 2020, with Xu and Sun on top. Luzan and Rybachok won their second consecutive silver in the event, as Rybachok had raced in 2020 under her maiden name of Anastasiya Chetverikova, while for Vincent it was a second consecutive bronze medal in the event, having finished third at Tokyo 2020 with Laurence Vincent-Lapointe (no relation). The day after this event ended, Vincent would win gold in the C1-200.