Kayak Doubles, 1,000 metres, Men

The Soviet Union was the reigning Olympic champion in the K-2 1000, as well as the final European champion (the tournament was discontinued after 1969), and sent Nikolay Gorbachov and Vikt’or K’rat’asiuk’i to the 1972 Summer Olympics. Austria’s Günther Pfaff, meanwhile, was one of the reigning World Champions, as well as a 1968 Olympic bronze medalist, and brought Helmut Hediger with him to Munich in an attempt to improve upon his previous Olympic result. Sweden was the last European and most recent World runner-up and sent Berndt Andersson and Bo Berglund to the 1972 Games. Hungary and East Germany had been the bronze medalists at these two tournaments respectively and was represented József Deme and János Rátkai and Reiner Kurth and Alexander Slatnow.

The opening heats were won by the Soviet Union, East Germany, and Hungary, the latter of whom posted the round’s fastest time. Sweden, meanwhile, only advanced by coming in third in its repêchage heat. It was then eliminated in a semi-final heat won by Hungary in Olympic record time, but the Soviets bested that record in their own heat by 0.02 seconds. East Germany, meanwhile, won the third heat. The final came down to a contest between the Soviets and the Hungarians, but the former were clearly the superior crew and successfully defended their nation’s title. Hungary thus settled for silver while the Polish duo of Władysław Szuszkiewicz and Rafał Piszcz nabbed a surprise bronze 0.33 seconds ahead of the East Germans.