Canoeing at the 1980 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 1980 Summer Olympics program.

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Birgit Fischer (GDR)	Vanja Gesheva-Tsvetkova (BUL)	Antonina Melnikova (URS)

Results

Heats

Thirteen competitors entered in two heats on July 30, but two withdrew. The top three finishers from each of the heats advanced directly to the final while the rest competed in the semifinal.

Heat 1
1.	Birgit Fischer (GDR)	1:56.92	QF
2.	Vanja Gesheva (BUL)	1:58.40	QF
3.	Antonina Melnikova (URS)	1:58.74	QF
4.	Katalin Povázsán (HUN)	2:01.21	QS
5.	Lucy Perret (GBR)	2:03.09	QS
-	Elisabetta Introini (ITA)	Did not start
-	Ineke Bakker (NED)	Did not start
Heat 2
1.	Ewa Eichler (POL)	1:59.75	QF
2.	Maria Ştefan (ROU)	1:59.94	QF
3.	Béatrice Knopf (FRA)	2:00.59	QF
4.	Agneta Andersson (SWE)	2:01.00	QS
5.	Marleen Kuppens (BEL)	2:05.61	QS
6.	Jana Polakovičová (TCH)	2:07.68	QS

Semifinal

The top three finishers in the semifinal (raced on August 1) advanced to the final.

Semifinal
1.	Katalin Povázsán (HUN)	2:02.66	QF
2.	Lucy Perret (GBR)	2:03.73	QF
3.	Agneta Andersson (SWE)	2:04.39	QF
4.	Marleen Kuppens (BEL)	2:04.86
5.	Jana Polakovičová (TCH)	2:08.99

Final

The final was held on August 1.

	Birgit Fischer (GDR)	1:57.96
	Vanja Gesheva (BUL)	1:59.48
	Antonina Melnikova (URS)	1:59.66
4.	Maria Ştefan (ROU)	2:00.90
5.	Ewa Eichler (POL)	2:01.23
6.	Agneta Andersson (SWE)	2:01.33
7.	Katalin Povázsán (HUN)	2:01.52
8.	Béatrice Knopf (FRA)	2:02.91
9.	Lucy Perret (GBR)	2:04.89

References

• 1980 Summer Olympics official report Volume 3. p. 195. (in English and French)
• Sports-reference.com 1980 women's K-1 500 m results.