Kayak Doubles, 1,000 metres, Men

The reigning World Champions in the K-2 1000 were Rik Verbrugghe and Germain Van De Moere, while Yevhen Yatsynenko and Ivan Holovachov of the Soviet Union were the most recent runners-up. Yatsynenko did not attend the 1960 Summer Olympics, but the other three were there and contenders for the podium, with Holovachov partnering with Mykolas Rudzinskas. Hungary’s György Mészáros and András Szente were the reigning European champions and were also in contention. All of these pairs, however, would have to face the Swedish duo of Sven-Olov Sjödelius and Gert Fredriksson, the latter of whom was a multiple Olympic and World Champion in other disciplines.

None of these nations, however, won their opening heats, which were taken by Ruud Knuppe and Toon Geurts of the Netherlands, Danish brothers Kai and Vagn Schmidt, and Germans Wolfgang Lange and Dieter Krause. With different crews, Denmark had been the 1957 European runners-up, while Germany had been the 1957 and 1959 European champion and bronze medalist respectively. The semi-finals had results that were more expected, as the heats were taken by Hungary, the Soviet Union, and the Polish duo of Władysław Zieliński and Stefan Kapłaniak. The only major upset was the elimination of Belgium in the first heat, in favor of Hungary, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The final came down to a race to the finish between Sweden and Hungary, which the former won by a margin of only 0.18 seconds, leaving the latter with silver and giving Fredriksson the rare distinction of having earned a gold medal at four consecutive Olympics. He was the first canoeist to accomplish this and his feat was not repeated until 1984, when Ivan Patzaichin of Romania won his fourth gold medal in the C-2 1000. Poland, meanwhile, took bronze by an ever smaller margin over the Soviet Union: 0.12 seconds. Mészáros and Szente won another silver medal at these Games as members of the K-1 4 x 500 metres relay crew.