Canadian Singles, 1,000 metres, Men

With the retirement of two-time Olympic champion Josef Holeček of Czechoslovakia, the C-1 1000 at the 1956 Summer Olympics was anyone’s to win. János Parti of Hungary, the reigning World Champion and defending Olympic runner-up probably had the strongest claim, but he elected to compete in the C-1 10000 (where he captured silver) and thus his nation was represented by István Hernek, the World C-1 1000 runner-up and C-1 10000 bronze medalist. Czechoslovakia, meanwhile, selected Karel Hradil in their bid to retain Holeček’s titles. Also in contention were Leon Rotman of Romania and Gennady Bukharin of the Soviet Union, who had won gold and bronze respectively in the C-1 10000 the previous day. With only nine entrants, the event went straight to the final, where Rotman became Olympic champion for the second time in the tournament, stealing gold from Hernek by a margin of nearly a second. The Hungarian, therefore, had to settle for silver, while Bukharin also repeated his performance from the C-1 10000 by coming in third, well ahead of Hradil.