Canadian Doubles, 1,000 metres, Men

Romania’s Ivan Patzaichin and Serghei Covaliov were the reigning Olympic, European, and World Champions in the C-2 1000 and the overwhelming favorites in the event at the 1972 Summer Olympics. They won their heat easily in the opening round, but the Soviet Union’s Vladas Česiūnas and Yury Lobanov posted a faster time in winning their own. The Soviet Union had been third at the final European Championships (the tournament was discontinued in 1969), albeit with a different crew. In the first semi-final heat, the Soviets set an Olympic record but, not to be outdone, the Romanians bested this time by 0.53 seconds. The East German duo of Dirk Weise and Dieter Lichtenberg took the third heat. The final was an exciting battle to the finish line between the Soviet Union and Romania, who were far ahead of the rest of the field by the last stretch. The two seemed to cross the finish line at the same time, but a photo finish revealed that the Soviets had successfully dethroned the defending champions by 0.03 seconds and taken gold. The bronze medalists, Fedya Damyanov and Ivan Burchin, representing the most recent World bronze medalist nation of Bulgaria, came in nearly five and a half seconds later. In addition to taking silver in the C-2 1000, Patzaichin also won the gold medal in the C-1 1000.