Kayak Doubles, 500 metres, Men

The Soviet Union was the reigning World Champion and Olympic runner-up in the men’s K-2 500 and sent its 1979 victors, Vladimir Parfenovich and Serhiy Chukhrai, the latter of whom was a 1976 Olympic champion in the K-4 1000, to the 1980 Summer Olympics. Bernd Olbricht was one of East Germany’s defending Olympic champions, and had won the World Championships in 1977 and 1978 and been runner-up in 1979, and brought his most recent partner Rüdiger Helm, a three-time Olympic and ten-time World medalist, to Moscow. France, meanwhile, was represented by 1979 World bronze medalists Francis Hervieu and Alain Lebas.

East Germany and the Soviet Union won their heats in the opening round, but France was bested by the Spanish duo of Guillermo del Riego and Herminio Menéndez, the latter of whom had seven World Championship medals in various disciplines. The results were similar in the semi-finals, except France came in second to the Soviet Union rather than Spain. In the final, the Soviet Union took gold without much difficulty, while Spain and East Germany battled for silver, the former of whom emerged victorious, leaving the latter with bronze. France did not arrive for its fourth-place finish until over two seconds later. Many of the podium finishers in this event went on to win medals in other disciplines: the Soviets also took gold in the K-2 1000, Parfenovich earned a third title in the K-1 500, the East Germans nabbed gold in the K-4 1000, Helm won another title in the K-1 1000, and Menéndez took bronze in the K-2 1000.