Canoeing at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Women's K-1 500 metres

The women's K-1 500 metres was a competition in canoeing at the 1956 Summer Olympics. The K-1 event is raced by single-person canoe sprint kayaks. Heat and finals took place on December 1.

Medalists

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  Gold   Silver   Bronze
  Yelizaveta Dementyeva (URS)   Therese Zenz (EUA)   Tove Søby (DEN)

Heats

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The ten competitors first raced in three heats. The top four finishers in each heat moved directly to the final.

Heat 1
1.   Therese Zenz (EUA) 2:17.6 QF
2.   Yelizaveta Dementyeva (URS) 2:20.9 QF
3.   Edith Cochrane (AUS) 2:24.0 QF
4.   Patricia Moody (GBR) 2:26.7 QF
5.   Helga Hellebrand (AUT) 2:27.5
Heat 2
1.   Tove Søby (DEN) 2:23.7 QF
2.   Cecilia Berkes (HUN) 2:25.3 QF
3.   Daniela Walkowiak (POL) 2:25.8 QF
4.   Eva Marion (FRA) 2:29.4 QF
5.   Eila Eskola (FIN) 2:31.4

Final

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    Yelizaveta Dementyeva (URS) 2:18.9
    Therese Zenz (EUA) 2:19.6
    Tove Søby (DEN) 2:22.3
4.   Cecilia Berkes (HUN) 2:23.5
5.   Edith Cochrane (AUS) 2:23.8
6.   Daniela Walkowiak (POL) 2:24.1
7.   Patricia Moody (GBR) 2:25.3
8.   Eva Marion (FRA) 2:27.9

Dementyeva false-started once, then won the event by two meters after spurting to the lead after the start. Fifth-place finisher Cochrane never trained with or competed against women prior to the Olympics.

References

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