Olympedia – Canadian Doubles, 1,000 metres, Men

Ulrich Papke and Ingo Spelly of Germany were the two-time reigning World Champions in the C-2 1000, while the latter had been runner up at the 1988 Summer Olympics with Olaf Heukrodt. They were the favorites for the event at the 1992 Games, but they would not go unchallenged. Competing for the Soviet Union, Nicolae Juravschi and Victor Reneischi had won the C-2 1000 at the previous Olympics and been third at the 1991 World Championships, but they had not been selected by the Unified Team, successor to the Soviets, to try and defend their title. Juravschi was offered a spot on the Romanian team and partnered with Gheorghe Andriev, but Reneischi did not attend the Games at all. The Unified Team, meanwhile, placed its faith in Oleksiy Ihraiev and Aleksandr Gramovich, the latter of whom was a 1990 World bronze medalist. Also in contention were Arne Nielsson and Christian Frederiksen of Denmark, the 1989 World Champions, and France’s Olivier Boivin and Didier Hoyer, the latter of whom was a 1984 Olympic bronze medalist and both of whom were the 1989 and 1991 World runners-up.

Germany set an Olympic record in their opening heat, but were only 0.24 seconds of Denmark in doing so. Romania, meanwhile, took the other heat, while France was runner-up and Ihraiev and Gramovich were fourth. Papke and Spelly dominated the final, winning gold by a margin of nearly two seconds, and thus captured their second medal of the Games, their first having been silver in the C-2 500 the previous day. The race for the remaining podium spots came down to a three-way battle between Denmark, France, and Romania, who finished in that order only 0.62 seconds apart.