Canadian Doubles, 1,000 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 C-2 1000, as nations that had won two of the last edition’s medals and five of the last nine World Championship medals were absent. In this case, however, the reigning Olympic champions and winners of the event in two of the last three World Championships, Romania’s Ivan Patzaichin and Toma Simionov, were present in Los Angeles to defend their crown. In the opening round they won their heat by over 12 seconds, while the Yugoslavian duo of Matija Ljubek and Mirko Nišović, the 1982 World runners-up and 1983 bronze medalists, took the other. The Yugoslavians put forth an impressive effort in the final, but the Romanians were in control the entire time and won gold with nearly a second to spare, leaving Ljubek and Nišović with silver. This was a reversal of the result from the C-2 500, in which Patzaichin and Simionov were runners-up to the Yugoslavians. France’s Didier Hoyer and Éric Renaud arrived for bronze nearly six and a half second later, while more than four and a half seconds passed before anyone else crossed the finish line.