Kayak Singles, 500 metres, Women

Sweden’s Agneta Andersson had become the Olympic champion in the women’s K-1 500 in 1984, but had done so in the absence of East Germany’s Birgit Schmidt, the 1980 Olympic champion who, by 1988, had 17 World Championship titles across various disciplines, including five in the K-1 500. This made Schmidt the favorite at the 1988 Summer Olympics, but she could expect at least a challenge from Bulgaria’s Vanya Gesheva, the 1986 World Champion in Schmidt’s absence. Gesheva set an Olympic record in the first opening heat, with Andersson coming in third behind Poland’s Izabella Dylewska-Światowiak, the most recent World runner-up. Schmidt, meanwhile, was second in her heat behind Denmark’s Yvonne Knudsen, the 1986 bronze medalist, who bested Gesheva’s record. Hungary’s Rita Kőbán took the third heat. Schmidt, Knudsen, and Dylewska-Światowiak defeated Gesheva, Andersson, and Kőbán respectively in the semi-finals, while the medal round came down to a fantastic battle to the finish between Schmidt and Gesheva, which the latter won surprisingly by only 0.12 seconds, leaving Fischer with silver. Kőbán had a similar battle with Dylewska-Światowiak in the final stretch, in which the latter emerged victorious by 0.2 seconds. Schmidt’s disappointment would not last, as she would go on to win the K-2 500 later that day and the K-4 500 the next, while Gesheva would complete a set of medals by taking silver and bronze in those events respectively.