Canoeing at the 1984 Summer Games: Previous Summer Games ▪ Next Summer Games
Host City: Los Angeles, United States
Venue(s): Lake Casitas, Los Padres National Forest, California
Date Started: August 7, 1984
Date Finished: August 11, 1984
Gold: | Canada |
Silver: | France |
Bronze: | Australia |
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 menâs K-2 1000, as nations that had won two of the last editionâs medals and six of the last nine World Championship medals (including all of the gold ones) were absent. Spain was the only returning Olympic medalist, as well as the 1982 World bronze medalist, and brought two veterans, [Herminio Menéndez] and [Guillermo del Riego], while Canadians [Hugh Fisher] and [Alwyn Morris], who came in third in the K-2 500 in Los Angeles, were the only recent World runners-up, having taken silver in 1982. Austria, meanwhile, was represented by [Werner Bachmayer] and [Wolfgang Hartl], the most recent World bronze medalists.
The opening heats were won by Canada (in a heat where Austria was third), twin brothers [Matthias] and [Oliver Seack] of West Germany, who helped relegate Spain to the repêchage, and the Swedish duo of [Bengt Andersson] and [Karl Sundqvist]. Spain made a comeback in the semi-finals by defeating West Germany and helping to eliminate Austria, while Sweden came second to the Italian pair of [Daniele Scarpa] and [Francesco Uberti] and Canada took the third heat. Canada took charge of the final and won its second Olympic canoeing title since 1936 (its first having come the day before from [Larry Cain] in the C-1 500) by a comfortable margin. The next two podium finishers were more of a surprise, as runner-up Franceâs crew of [Bernard Brégeon] and [Patrick Lefoulon] had only advanced to the semi-finals through the repêchage, while Australians [Barry Kelly] and [Grant Kenny] had not been considered medal contenders. Brégeonâs silver was not his only medal of the Games, as he had taken bronze in the K-1 500 the day before.
Rank | Team | NOC | Medal | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Canada | CAN | Gold | OB |
2 | France | FRA | Silver | |
3 | Australia | AUS | Bronze | |
4 | United States | USA | ||
5 | West Germany | FRG | ||
6 | Italy | ITA | ||
7 | Spain | ESP | ||
8 | Sweden | SWE | ||
9 | Belgium | BEL | ||
4 h1 r3/4 | Great Britain | GBR | ||
4 h2 r3/4 | Austria | AUT | ||
4 h3 r3/4 | Romania | ROU | ||
5 h1 r3/4 | New Zealand | NZL | ||
5 h2 r3/4 | Netherlands | NED | ||
5 h3 r3/4 | Norway | NOR | ||
4 h1 r2/4 | China | CHN | ||
4 h2 r2/4 | Japan | JPN |