| Date | 31 July – 4 August 1996 |
|---|---|
| Status | Olympic |
| Location | Lake Sidney Lanier, Gainesville, Georgia |
| Participants | 17 from 17 countries |
Bulgaria’s Nikolay Buhalov was the defending Olympic and three-time reigning World Champion in the C-1 500 and a strong favorite to take gold at the 1996 Games. He struggled in the opening round, however, and came fifth in an opening heat won by Martin Doktor of the Czech Republic, the 1995 World runner-up, while the other heat was taken by Thomas Zereske of Germany, the 1990 World runner-up. Buhalov continued to have difficulties in the semi-finals, where he lost his heat to Canadian Steve Giles, the 1993 World bronze medalist, while Ukraine’s Mykhailo Slivinsky, the 1988 and 1992 Olympic runner-up, took the other.
Giles had a slight lead over the rest of the pack in the first half of the final, but that slowly disintegrated until he was left in last place by the end of the race. Doktor, meanwhile, put forth a powerful sprint near the end of the course to claim the gold medal ahead of Slovakia’s Slavomír Kňazovický, who fell from his canoe as he crossed the line in second place. This made Doktor a double Olympic champion, as he had won the C-1 1000 the previous day. Hungary’s Imre Pulai, the 1994 World runner-up and 1995 bronze medalist, came in third.
| Pos | Competitor | NOC | R1 | SF | Final | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Doktor |  CZE | 1:52.907 (1 h1) | – | 1:49.934 (1) | Gold | ||
| 2 | Slavomír Kňazovický |  SVK | 1:52.971 (2 h1) | – | 1:50.510 (2) | Silver | ||
| 3 | Imre Pulai |  HUN | 1:54.244 (2 h2) | – | 1:50.758 (3) | Bronze | ||
| 4 | Mykhailo Slivinsky |  UKR | 1:54.283 (4 h1) | 1:52.093 (1 h1) | 1:51.714 (4) | |||
| 5 | Thomas Zereske |  GER | 1:53.840 (1 h2) | – | 1:52.358 (5) | |||
| 6 | Christian Frederiksen |  DEN | 1:55.056 (4 h2) | 1:52.174 (3 h2) | 1:52.846 (6) | |||
| 7 | Konstantin Negodyayev |  KAZ | 1:55.859 (6 h1) | 1:52.421 (2 h1) | 1:53.158 (7) | |||
| 8 | Steve Giles |  CAN | 1:53.803 (3 h1) | 1:51.614 (1 h2) | 1:53.326 (8) | |||
| AC r3/3 | Nikolay Buhalov |  BUL | 1:54.727 (5 h1) | 1:51.914 (2 h2) | – ( | |||
| 3 h1 r2/3 | Éric le Leuch |  FRA | 1:54.544 (3 h2) | 1:53.305 (3 h1) | – | |||
| 4 h1 r2/3 | José Manuel Crespo |  ESP | 1:57.915 (8 h1) | 1:54.121 (4 h1) | – | |||
| 4 h2 r2/3 | Jim Terrell |  USA | 1:57.295 (7 h1) | 1:54.086 (4 h2) | – | |||
| 5 h1 r2/3 | Florin Huidu |  ROU | 1:58.140 (5 h2) | 1:56.733 (5 h1) | – | |||
| 5 h2 r2/3 | Dražen Funtak |  CRO | 2:00.076 (6 h2) | 1:58.570 (5 h2) | – | |||
| 6 h1 r2/3 | Andrei Placinta |  MDA | 1:59.423 (9 h1) | 1:57.457 (6 h1) | – | |||
| 6 h2 r2/3 | Yevgeny Astanin |  UZB | 2:02.532 (8 h2) | 1:59.042 (6 h2) | – | |||
| 7 h1 r2/3 | Silvestre Pereira |  POR | 2:01.576 (7 h2) | 1:57.949 (7 h1) | – |
| Date | 31 July 1996 |
|---|---|
| Format | Top 2 in each heat advanced to the final. |
| Time | 9:50 |
|---|
| Pos | Competitor | NOC | Time | 250 m | 250-500 m | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Doktor | CZE | 1:52.907 | 55.44 (1) | 57.467 (4) | ||
| 2 | Slavomír Kňazovický | SVK | 1:52.971 | 55.75 (2) | 57.221 (2) | ||
| 3 | Steve Giles | CAN | 1:53.803 | 56.40 (4) | 57.403 (3) | ||
| 4 | Mykhailo Slivinsky | UKR | 1:54.283 | 58.02 (9) | 56.263 (1) | ||
| 5 | Nikolay Buhalov | BUL | 1:54.727 | 56.10 (3) | 58.627 (5) | ||
| 6 | Konstantin Negodyayev | KAZ | 1:55.859 | 57.06 (6) | 58.799 (6) | ||
| 7 | Jim Terrell | USA | 1:57.295 | 56.74 (5) | 1:00.555 (8) | ||
| 8 | José Manuel Crespo | ESP | 1:57.915 | 57.39 (7) | 1:00.525 (7) | ||
| 9 | Andrei Placinta | MDA | 1:59.423 | 57.70 (8) | 1:01.723 (9) |
| Time | 10:00 |
|---|
| Pos | Competitor | NOC | Time | 250 m | 250-500 m | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Zereske | GER | 1:53.840 | 55.89 (2) | 57.950 (2) | ||
| 2 | Imre Pulai | HUN | 1:54.244 | 55.57 (1) | 58.674 (3) | ||
| 3 | Éric le Leuch | FRA | 1:54.544 | 57.17 (5) | 57.374 (1) | ||
| 4 | Christian Frederiksen | DEN | 1:55.056 | 56.23 (3) | 58.826 (4) | ||
| 5 | Florin Huidu | ROU | 1:58.140 | 56.86 (4) | 1:01.280 (5) | ||
| 6 | Dražen Funtak | CRO | 2:00.076 | 57.51 (6) | 1:02.566 (6) | ||
| 7 | Silvestre Pereira | POR | 2:01.576 | 58.44 (7) | 1:03.136 (7) | ||
| 8 | Yevgeny Astanin | UZB | 2:02.532 | 58.85 (8) | 1:03.682 (8) |
| Date | 2 August 1996 |
|---|---|
| Format | Top 2 in each heat and fastest third advanced to the final. |
| Time | 9:30 |
|---|
| Pos | Competitor | NOC | Time | 250 m | 250-500 m | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mykhailo Slivinsky | UKR | 1:52.093 | 55.47 (3) | 56.623 (1) | ||
| 2 | Konstantin Negodyayev | KAZ | 1:52.421 | 54.63 (1) | 57.791 (3) | ||
| 3 | Éric le Leuch | FRA | 1:53.305 | 55.96 (4) | 57.345 (2) | ||
| 4 | José Manuel Crespo | ESP | 1:54.121 | 54.94 (2) | 59.181 (4) | ||
| 5 | Florin Huidu | ROU | 1:56.733 | 56.22 (5) | 1:00.513 (6) | ||
| 6 | Andrei Placinta | MDA | 1:57.457 | 57.69 (7) | 59.767 (5) | ||
| 7 | Silvestre Pereira | POR | 1:57.949 | 56.89 (6) | 1:01.059 (7) |
| Time | 9:40 |
|---|
| Pos | Competitor | NOC | Time | 250 m | 250-500 m | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steve Giles | CAN | 1:51.614 | 54.30 (1) | 57.314 (2) | ||
| 2 | Nikolay Buhalov | BUL | 1:51.914 | 54.83 (3) | 57.084 (1) | ||
| 3 | Christian Frederiksen | DEN | 1:52.174 | 54.56 (2) | 57.614 (3) | ||
| 4 | Jim Terrell | USA | 1:54.086 | 55.09 (4) | 58.996 (4) | ||
| 5 | Dražen Funtak | CRO | 1:58.570 | 55.72 (5) | 1:02.850 (6) | ||
| 6 | Yevgeny Astanin | UZB | 1:59.042 | 57.99 (6) | 1:01.052 (5) |
| Date | 4 August 1996 — 9:20 |
|---|
| Pos | Competitor | NOC | Time | 250 m | 250-500 m | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Doktor | CZE | 1:49.934 | 54.52 (4) | 55.414 (1) | ||
| 2 | Slavomír Kňazovický | SVK | 1:50.510 | 53.97 (2) | 56.540 (3) | ||
| 3 | Imre Pulai | HUN | 1:50.758 | 54.27 (3) | 56.488 (2) | ||
| 4 | Mykhailo Slivinsky | UKR | 1:51.714 | 55.05 (6) | 56.664 (4) | ||
| 5 | Thomas Zereske | GER | 1:52.358 | 54.78 (5) | 57.578 (6) | ||
| 6 | Christian Frederiksen | DEN | 1:52.846 | 55.56 (8) | 57.286 (5) | ||
| 7 | Konstantin Negodyayev | KAZ | 1:53.158 | 55.32 (7) | 57.838 (7) | ||
| 8 | Steve Giles | CAN | 1:53.326 | 53.64 (1) | 59.686 (8) | ||
| Nikolay Buhalov | BUL | – | – (–) | – (–) |
