Canadian Singles, 1,000 metres, Men

The last three editions of the World Championships had seen three different winners of the C-1 1000: Andreas Dittmer of Germany, Steve Giles of Canada, and Maksim Opalev of Russia, all of whom were capable in 2000 of stealing the Olympic title away from defending champion Martin Doktor of the Czech Republic. Bulgaria’s Nikolay Buhalov, meanwhile, was the 1992 Olympic champion, while György Zala of Hungary was the 1992 and 1996 bronze medalist. Giles, Buhalov, Opalev, and Zala all appeared in the same opening heat, but none of them won it; that distinction went to Ledys Balceiro of Cuba, who had been runner-up to Giles in this event at the most recent Pan American Games. Giles, who was 0.276 seconds behind, came in second as was the only other of these men to qualify directly for the final; the rest were relegated to the semi-finals. The second heat was much simpler, with Dittmer and Doktor taking the top two spots, both qualifying automatically for the final, and the German doing so in Olympic record time. Opalev won the semi-final, but he was the only one to advance, as Buhalov and Zala were both eliminated. Dittmer dominated the final, taking gold over a second and a half before anyone else arrived, while the two North American nations duked it out for the remaining podium spots. Balceiro came out on top and won silver, his nation’s first ever Olympic medal in canoeing (although it would be followed less than two hours later by another silver medal in the C-2 1000), while Giles settled for bronze. Dittmer would go on to capture bronze in the C-1 500.