Kayak Singles, 500 metres, Men

Unlike the 1980 American-led boycott, which had had a limited impact on the canoeing events, the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics severely depleted the field in the sport. This was undeniable in the men’s K-1 500, for the defending Olympic and four-time World Champion Vladimir Parfenovich of the Soviet Union was absent, as were the East Germans, who had taken silver and bronze at the 1982 and 1983 Worlds respectively. This left three major contenders at the Games: New Zealand’s Ian Ferguson, the 1983 World runner-up, Lars-Erik Moberg of Sweden, the 1981 and 1982 World bronze medalist, and Romania’s Vasile Dîba who, among many international accolades, had been the 1976 Olympic champion and 1980 bronze medalist.

Dîba earned the opening round’s fastest time as he defeated Ferguson, while Moberg and Yugoslavia’s Milan Janić took the other heats. Ferguson then posted the fastest time in the semi-finals, besting Janić in the process, while Moberg came in second to France’s Bernard Brégeon in other heat and Dîba captured the third. As the crews approached the finish line in the medal round, Ferguson, Moberg, Brégeon, and Dîba were clustered together and finished in that order with less than a second between them. Brégeon would win another Olympic medal, silver, in the K-2 1000, while Ferguson and Moberg’s rivalry would continue into the K-2 500 and the K-4 1000, where the Swede would be runner-up twice more to the New Zealander.