Canoeing at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Women's K-1 500 metres

The women's K-1 500 metres event was an individual kayaking event conducted as part of the Canoeing at the 1968 Summer Olympics program. In the official report, heats were shown timed in tenths of a second (0.1) while the semifinal and final events were timed in hundredths of a second (0.01).

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Ludmila Pinayeva (URS)	Renate Breuer (FRG)	Viorica Dumitru (ROU)

Results

Heats

The 13 competitors first raced in two heats on October 22. The top three finishers from each of the heats advanced directly to the final while the rest competed in the semifinal two days later.

Heat 1
1.	Ludmila Pinayeva (URS)	2:07.1	QF
2.	Anna Pfeffer (HUN)	2:08.6	QF
3.	Iva Vávrová (TCH)	2:09.1	QF
4.	Marcia Smoke (USA)	2:09.6	QS
5.	Stanisława Szydłowska (POL)	2:12.1	QS
6.	Sylvia Jackson (GBR)	2:13.6	QS
7.	Ann Margarit Henningsen (MEX)	2:18.2	QS
Heat 2
1.	Viorica Dumitru (ROU)	2:10.0	QF
2.	Renate Breuer (FRG)	2:10.3	QF
3.	Mieke Jaapies (NED)	2:10.9	QF
4.	Ingmårie Svensson (SWE)	2:12.2	QS
5.	Anita Nüssner (GDR)	2:17.0	QS
6.	Majorie Homer-Dixon (CAN)	2:18.5	QS

In the official report, Nüssner's surname is shown as Nübner and Svensson's first name is shown as Ing-Marie.

Semifinal

The top three finishers in the semifinal (raced on October 24) advanced to the final.

Semifinal
1.	Marcia Smoke (USA)	2:12.67	QF
2.	Anita Nüssner (GDR)	2:13.42	QF
3.	Ingmårie Svensson (SWE)	2:14.55	QF
4.	Stanisława Szydłowska (POL)	2:15.32
5.	Sylvia Jackson (GBR)	2:17.98
6.	Majorie Homer-Dixon (CAN)	2:20.84
7.	Ann Margarit Henningsen (MEX)	2:21.39

Final

The final was held on October 25.

	Ludmila Pinayeva (URS)	2:11.09
	Renate Breuer (FRG)	2:12.71
	Viorica Dumitru (ROU)	2:13.22
4.	Marcia Smoke (USA)	2:14.68
5.	Iva Vávrová (TCH)	2:14.78
6.	Anita Nüssner (GDR)	2:16.02
7.	Ingmårie Svensson (SWE)	2:16.04
8.	Mieke Jaapies (NED)	2:18.38
-	Anna Pfeffer (HUN)	DNF

Pfeffer capsized in the water midway through the final and had to be rescued by watercraft following the canoers.

References

• 1968 Summer Olympics official report Volume 3, Part 2. p. 617. Template:En icon & Template:Fr icon
• Sports-reference.com 1968 women's K-1 500 m results.
• Wallechinsky, David and Jaime Loucky (2008). "Canoeing: Women's Kayak Singles 500 Meters". In The Complete Book of the Olympics: 2008 Edition. London: Aurum Press Limited. p. 491.