The women's K-2 500 metres sprint canoeing event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 2 and 3 August 2021 at the Sea Forest Waterway. At least 20 canoeists (10 boats of 2) from at least 9 nations competed.

Background This was the 16th appearance of the event, having appeared at every Summer Games since 1960.

The reigning World Champions are Maryna Litvinchuk and Volha Khudzenka of Belarus. The reigning Olympic champions are Gabriella Szabó and Danuta Kozák of Hungary.

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could qualify one place in the event, though could enter up to 2 boats if it earned enough quota places through other women's kayak events. A total of 13 qualification places were available, initially allocated as follows:

6 places awarded through the 2019 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships 3 places awarded to 3 different continents (excluding Europe) through the World Championships, which are then competed for at continental tournaments 1 places awarded through a European continental tournament

Qualifying places were awarded to the NOC, not to the individual canoeist who earned the place.

The top 6 boats used only 5 of the 12 athlete quotas; the other 7 were reallocated up to the K-4. After the K-4 reallocation process, 3 spots were reallocated down to the K-2. This was sufficient to qualify China, using 2 of those places, but Austria could not qualify through reallocation because they needed 2 places and only 1 remained. The quota was reallocated further to the K-1 500 metres.

The three continental spots were awarded to Oceania (#9 New Zealand), the Americas (#13 Canada), and Africa (#19 South Africa); Asia had the lowest next-ranked team (#20 Uzbekistan). The continental tournaments were won by Tunisia, Germany, and Australia; the Americas spot was reallocated to the general World Championships after the tournament was cancelled. The World Championships spots were allocated as follows:Canoe Sprint Quota Allocation

Rank Kayaker Nation Qualification Selected competitors 1Maryna LitvinchukVolha Khudzenka Both earned quotas in K-4 2Karolina NajaAnna Puławska Both earned quotas in K-4 3Špela Ponomarenko JanićAnja Osterman Quota #3 in K-2 4Hermien PetersLize Broekx Quota #4 in K-2 5Sarah GuyotManon Hostens Both earned quotas in K-4 6Mariya PovkhLiudmyla Kuklinovska Quota #6 in K-2 (one quota in K-4) 7Yu ShimengWang Nan Reallocated quotas 8Viktoria SchwarzAna Roxana Lehaci Reallocated Americas quota in K-2

Continental places:

Nation Qualification Selected competitor Africa quota in K-2 500 m Europe quota in K-2 500 m Oceania quota in K-2 500 m

Nations with women's kayak quota spots from the K-1 200 metres, K-1 500 metres, or K-4 500 metres could enter (additional) boats as well.

Nation Selected competitors 1 Selected competitors 2

Competition format Sprint canoeing uses a four-round format for events with at least 11 boats, with heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. The specifics of the progression format depend on the number of boats ultimately entered.

The course is a flatwater course 9 metres wide. The name of the event describes the particular format within sprint canoeing. The "K" format means a kayak, with the canoeist sitting, using a double-bladed paddle to paddle, and steering with a foot-operated rudder (as opposed to a canoe, with a kneeling canoeist, single-bladed paddle, and no rudder). The "2" is the number of canoeists in each boat. The "500 metres" is the distance of each race.

Schedule The event was held over two consecutive days, with two rounds per day. All sessions started at 9:30 a.m. local time, though there are multiple events with races in each session.

+Sprint Event↓/Date → Mon 2 Tue 3 Wed 4 Thu 5 Fri 6 Sat 7 Women's K-2 500 m H ¼ ½ F Results Heats Progression System: 1st-2nd to SF, rest to QF.

Heat 1 RankLaneCanoerCountryTimeNotes16Danuta KozákDóra Bodonyi1:45.73523Kira StepanovaVarvara Baranova1:47.87435Ana Roxana LehaciViktoria Schwarz1:48.22044Liudmyla KuklinovskaAnastasiia Todorova1:50.73352Afef Ben IsmailKhaoula Sassi2:05.770

Heat 2 RankLaneCanoerCountryTimeNotes15Karolina NajaAnna Puławska1:44.60624Manon HostensSarah Guyot1:45.53333Li DongyinZhou Yu1:45.83142Alicia HoskinTeneale Hatton1:49.83256Jaime RobertsJo Brigden-Jones1:52.097

Heat 3 RankLaneCanoerCountryTimeNotes16Tamara CsipesErika Medveczky1:42.77624Volha KhudzenkaMaryna Litvinchuk1:43.37732Caroline ArftSarah Brüßler1:48.05845Špela Ponomarenko JanićAnja Osterman1:48.50953Julie FunchBolette Nyvang Iversen1:52.730

Heat 4 RankLaneCanoerCountryTimeNotes13Lisa CarringtonCaitlin Regal1:43.836SF24Sabrina Hering-PradlerTina Dietze 1:44.894SF32Alyssa BullAlyce Wood 1:45.499QF45Hermien PetersLize Broekx1:48.137QF56Alanna Bray-LougheedMadeline Schmidt1:49.776QF

Quarterfinals Progression: 1st-4th to SF, rest out.

Quarterfinal 1 RankLaneCanoerCountryTimeNotes16Hermien PetersLize Broekx1:47.649SF24Caroline ArftSarah Brüßler1:48.450SF35Ana Roxana LehaciViktoria Schwarz1:49.777SF43Alicia HoskinTeneale Hatton1:50.507SF57Julie FunchBolette Nyvang Iversen1:52.67862Afef Ben IsmailKhaoula Sassi2:10.979

Quarterfinal 2 RankLaneCanoerCountryTimeNotes16Špela Ponomarenko JanićAnja Osterman1:46.929SF24Alyssa BullAlyce Wood 1:47.057SF35Li DongyinZhou Yu1:47.471SF42Jaime RobertsJo Brigden-Jones1:50.325SF57Alanna Bray-LougheedMadeline Schmidt1:51.86263Liudmyla KuklinovskaAnastasiia Todorova1:53.184

Semifinals Progression System: 1st-4th to Final A, rest to Final B.

Semifinal 1 RankLaneCanoerCountryTimeNotes14Danuta KozákDóra Bodonyi1:37.91225Tamara CsipesErika Medveczky1:38.44633Manon HostensSarah Guyot1:38.63246Sabrina Hering-PradlerTina Dietze1:38.95458Li DongyinZhou Yu1:39.40467Caroline ArftSarah Brüßler1:39.42171Alicia HoskinTeneale Hatton1:44.11982Špela Ponomarenko JanićAnja Osterman

Semifinal 2 RankLaneCanoerCountryTimeNotes15Lisa CarringtonCaitlin Regal1:36.724OB, FA27Alyssa BullAlyce Wood 1:37.109FA36Volha KhudzenkaMaryna Litvinchuk1:37.198FA44Karolina NajaAnna Puławska1:37.219FA52Hermien PetersLize Broekx1:39.046FB68Ana Roxana LehaciViktoria Schwarz1:39.497FB73Kira StepanovaVarvara Baranova1:42.069FB81Jaime RobertsJo Brigden-Jones1:42.092FB

Finals

Final A RankLaneCanoerCountryTimeNotes4Lisa CarringtonCaitlin Regal1:35.785OB8Karolina NajaAnna Puławska1:36.7535Danuta KozákDóra Bodonyi1:36.86743Tamara CsipesErika Medveczky1:37.11456Alyssa BullAlyce Wood 1:37.41262Volha KhudzenkaMaryna Litvinchuk1:37.64777Manon HostensSarah Guyot1:40.32981Sabrina Hering-PradlerTina Dietze1:42.406

Final B RankLaneCanoerCountryTimeNotes94Hermien PetersLize Broekx1:38.475105Li DongyinZhou Yu1:39.790113Caroline ArftSarah Brüßler1:39.953126Ana Roxana LehaciViktoria Schwarz1:40.007138Jaime RobertsJo Brigden-Jones1:41.073147Alicia HoskinTeneale Hatton1:41.121152Kira StepanovaVarvara Baranova1:44.054

References