Canoeing at the 1972 Summer Olympics

At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, seven events in sprint canoe racing were contested, and for the first time at the Olympic Games, four events in slalom canoeing were also contested, at the Augsburg Eiskanal.

Canoeing
at the Games of the XX Olympiad
No. of events11

Medal summary

Slalom

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Men's C-1
Reinhard Eiben
 East Germany
Reinhold Kauder
 West Germany
Jamie McEwan
 United States
Men's C-2
 Walter Hofmann
and Rolf-Dieter Amend (GDR)
 Hans-Otto Schumacher
and Wilhelm Baues (FRG)
 Jean-Louis Olry
and Jean-Claude Olry (FRA)
Men's K-1
Siegbert Horn
 East Germany
Norbert Sattler
 Austria
Harald Gimpel
 East Germany
Women's K-1
Angelika Bahmann
 East Germany
Gisela Grothaus
 West Germany
Magdalena Wunderlich
 West Germany

Men's events

Event Gold Silver Bronze
C-1 1000 metres
Ivan Patzaichin
 Romania
Tamás Wichmann
 Hungary
Detlef Lewe
 West Germany
C-2 1000 metres
Vladas Česiūnas
and Yuri Lobanov
 Soviet Union
Ivan Patzaichin
and Serghei Covaliov
 Romania
Fedia Damianov
and Ivan Burtchin
 Bulgaria
K-1 1000 metres
Aleksandr Shaparenko
 Soviet Union
Rolf Peterson
 Sweden
Géza Csapó
 Hungary
K-2 1000 metres
Nikolai Gorbachev
and Viktor Kratasyuk
 Soviet Union
József Deme
and János Rátkai
 Hungary
Władysław Szuszkiewicz
and Rafał Piszcz
 Poland
K-4 1000 metres
 Soviet Union (URS)
Yuri Filatov
Yuri Stetsenko
Vladimir Morozov
Valeri Didenko
 Romania (ROU)
Aurel Vernescu
Mihai Zafiu
Roman Vartolomeu
Atanase Sciotnic
 Norway (NOR)
Egil Søby
Steinar Amundsen
Tore Berger
Jan Johansen

Women's events

Event Gold Silver Bronze
K-1 500 metres
Yulia Ryabchinskaya
 Soviet Union
Mieke Jaapies
 Netherlands
Anna Pfeffer
 Hungary
K-2 500 metres
Lyudmila Pinayeva
and Yekaterina Kuryshko
 Soviet Union
Ilse Kaschube
and Petra Grabowski
 East Germany
Maria Nichiforov
and Viorica Dumitru
 Romania

Medal table

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Soviet Union (URS)6006
2 East Germany (GDR)4116
3 Romania (ROU)1214
4 West Germany (FRG)0325
5 Hungary (HUN)0224
6 Austria (AUT)0101
 Netherlands (NED)0101
 Sweden (SWE)0101
9 Bulgaria (BUL)0011
 France (FRA)0011
 Norway (NOR)0011
 Poland (POL)0011
 United States (USA)0011
Totals (13 nations)11111133

The introduction of slalom: A difficult case

During the Congress of the International Canoe Federation (ICF) in 1966 that the Deutscher Kanu-Verband (DKV) decides to make all possible efforts to include canoeing slalom at the Olympic Games.

During the 67th Session of the IOC in Mexico in 1968, Canoe Slalom and Wild-Water Racing asked to be included into the Olympic Programme. The ICF presents an exposed about these two disciplines.[1] The meeting decides to add canoe slalom to the program with the restriction that the event must not take place too far from the Olympic city.[2]

If the proposition was accepted at the Session in June 1969 these two events will be part of the canoeing events that will make up one of the 21 sports of the Olympic Program in 1972.

During the Executive Board meeting in 1969 in Lausanne, Mr. de Coquereaumont said that although the slalom could be held in the centre of Munich, but the river-racing event would have to be held in Garmisch, 300 km from Munich. The Executive Board decided to recommend slalom for Munich Olympic Games, but the question would later be reviewed. However, River-racing was not approved.[3]

The Organizing Committee examines the possibility of building the Canoe-Slalom tracks in Munich about 5–6 km from the Olympic Village. The architects and technical staff examine two possibilities on the Isar River in the center of Munich. But in the construction problem there are some technical difficulties. The third possibility is to organize the Canoe-Slalom competition in Augsburg, which is about 64 km from Munich too far of the Olympic Village : referencing to the decision which was taken in 1969 the canoe slalom competition have to be held as near as possible to this Village. IOC decides that Canoe slalom for the Munich Games will be omitted from the programme if they would have to take place in Augsburg.

Finally, IOC gives final approval to organize events on Eiskanal in Augsburg during the Amsterdam's session in 1970 : Request that the Canoe Slalom for the Munich Games 1972 be held at Augsburg because a railway service will be ensured between the Olympic Village and Augsburg and will take 30 minutes. However, the decision will be reviewed for the next Olympic Games.

The slalom events will not take part anymore of the program for the Montreal Games in 1976. This experiment will not be repeated before in 1992 in Barcelona.[4]

Ideological confrontation during slalom events

The decision to include canoe slalom events at the Olympic program was taken during the Cold War. Moreover, Germany was the symbol of world division.[5] Consequently, the Olympic events become the scene of a confrontation between the West Germans and East Germans. Each seeking to assert its own ideological model. It was the West German who have the advantage because the Olympic Games take place in Munich and slalom events take place at Augsburg on Eiskanal. So, they used to train in this whitewater stadium. However, the East German National Federation canoe sends his national coach, Mr. Lempert in West-Germany. He pretends to be an entrepreneur of the International Canoe Federation. He can reproduce the plans of Eiskanal. A reproduction of the whitewater stadium is built around Zwickau.[6] The both Germanys are again equal. Finally it is the East Germans who win with four gold medals and one bronze against three silver medals and one bronze for West Germany.

References

  1. library.la84.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1969
  2. "library.la84.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1968" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
  3. Minutes of the meeting of the executive board in Lausanne in 1969, Archives of olympic studies centre
  4. www.olympic.org Archived February 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Maurice VAÏSSE, Les relations internationales depuis 1945, Pars, A. Collin, 2002 (1ère éd. 1990), p.81.
  6. Sportspionage bei Olympia 1972 - Einestages.spiegel.de

See also

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