Kayak Doubles (K2), 500 metres, Men

Germany’s Kay Bluhm and Torsten Gutsche were the reigning Olympic champions, as well as the 1989, 1993, and 1994 World Champions, and were favored to defend their title at the 1996 Games, but they would have to deal with a challenge from Italy’s Beniamino Bonomi and Daniele Scarpa, the reigning World Champions. Maciej Freimut of Poland, a 1992 Olympic runner-up, had a new partner in Adam Wysocki, with whom he had been third in this event at the 1995 World Championships.

Poland was second to Italy in the opening heats, while Germany and the Hungarian duo of Krisztián Bártfai and Zsolt Gyulay, the 1995 World runners-up, took a third heat. The Hungarians and Poles were then fourth and third, respectively, in semi-final heats won by Italy and Germany. Hungary led the final for most of the course, but a flurry of activity saw them passed by five other nations, most notably Germany, who charged towards the finish line and managed to hold off the Italians by a mere 0.032 seconds to defend their title and get their revenge on Bonomi, who had helped deny them gold in the K-1 1000. Australia’s Danny Collins and Andrew Trim, meanwhile, were the surprise bronze medalists, stealing third place from Russians Oleg Goroby and Anatoly Tishchenko by 0.268 seconds.