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

Gold Gold	Silver Silver	Bronze Bronze
File:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Yelizaveta Dementyeva (URS)	File:Flag of Germany.svg Therese Zenz (EUA)	File:Flag of Denmark.svg Tove Søby (DEN)

Heats

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

Heat 1
1.	File:Flag of Germany.svg Therese Zenz (EUA)	2:17.6	QF
2.	File:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Yelizaveta Dementyeva (URS)	2:20.9	QF
3.	File:Flag of Australia.svg Edith Cochrane (AUS)	2:24.0	QF
4.	File:Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg Patricia Moody (GBR)	2:26.7	QF
5.	File:Flag of Austria.svg Helga Hellebrand (AUT)	2:27.5
Heat 2
1.	File:Flag of Denmark.svg Tove Søby (DEN)	2:23.7	QF
2.	File:Flag of Hungary (1946-1949, 1956-1957).svg Cecilia Berkes (HUN)	2:25.3	QF
3.	File:Flag of Poland (1928-1980).svg Daniela Walkowiak (POL)	2:25.8	QF
4.	File:Flag of France.svg Eva Marion (FRA)	2:29.4	QF
5.	File:Flag of Finland.svg Eila Eskola (FIN)	2:31.4

Final

Gold	File:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Yelizaveta Dementyeva (URS)	2:18.9
Silver	File:Flag of Germany.svg Therese Zenz (EUA)	2:19.6
Bronze	File:Flag of Denmark.svg Tove Søby (DEN)	2:22.3
4.	File:Flag of Hungary (1946-1949, 1956-1957).svg Cecilia Berkes (HUN)	2:23.5
5.	File:Flag of Australia.svg Edith Cochrane (AUS)	2:23.8
6.	File:Flag of Poland (1928-1980).svg Daniela Walkowiak (POL)	2:24.1
7.	File:Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg Patricia Moody (GBR)	2:25.3
8.	File:Flag of France.svg 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

• 1956 Summer Olympics official report. pp. 409–10.
• Sports-reference.com women's 1956 K-1 500 m results.
• Wallechinsky, David and Jaime Loucky (2008). "Canoeing: Women's Kayak Singles 500 Meters". In The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics: 2008 Edition. London: Aurum Press Limited. pp. 490–1.