Kayak Doubles, 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 noticeable in the men’s K-2 500, as nations that had won two of the last edition’s medals and six of the last nine World Championship medals (including all of the gold ones) were absent. This left three pairs who had medalled recently at major international tournaments: Canadians Hugh Fisher and Alwyn Morris (bronze at the 1983 World Championships), twin brothers Matthias and Oliver Seack of West Germany (bronze at the 1982 World Championships), and Spain’s Herminio Menéndez and Guillermo del Riego (silver at the 1980 Summer Olympics). Additionally, New Zealand’s Paul MacDonald had been runner-up at the 1982 Worlds with Alan Thompson, but was partnered with Ian Ferguson in Los Angeles.

New Zealand won its opening heat against the Swedish duo of Per-Inge Bengtsson and Lars-Erik Moberg, the latter of whom had already been runner-up to Ferguson in the K-1 500 by the time of this event’s final. West Germany, meanwhile, was third in Canada’s heat, behind the Italian pair of Daniele Scarpa and Francesco Uberti, while Spain came in fourth in a heat won by Andrew Sheriff and Jeremy West of Great Britain and advanced only through the repêchage, only to be eliminated in the semi-finals. New Zealand, Canada, and Great Britain were the victors in that round, while Ferguson and MacDonald continued their streak by capturing gold in the final with over a second to spare. The remaining podium spots came down to a battle between Sweden, Canada, Italy, and Romania’s Nicolae Fedosei and Angelin Velea who finished in that order with only 0.34 seconds between them. Ferguson and Moberg would continue their feud the next day in the K-4 1000, where the New Zealanders were once again victorious and forced the Swedes to settle for silver, while the Canadians would continue their streak by winning Canada’s second Olympic title since 1936, with the first having come the day before from Larry Cain in the C-1 500.