Canoeing at the 1956 Summer Olympics
Sprint
C-1 1000 m	men
C-1 10000 m	men
C-2 1000 m	men
C-2 10000 m	men
K-1 500 m		women
K-1 1000 m	men
K-1 10000 m	men
K-2 1000 m	men
K-2 10000 m	men
v t e

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	Silver	Bronze
Yelizaveta Dementyeva (URS)	Therese Zenz (EUA)	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.	Therese Zenz (EUA)	2:17.6	QF
2.	Yelizaveta Dementyeva (URS)	2:20.9	QF
3.	Edith Cochrane (AUS)	2:24.0	QF
4.	Patricia Moody (GBR)	2:26.7	QF
5.	Helga Hellebrand (AUT)	2:27.5
Heat 2
1.	Tove Søby (DEN)	2:23.7	QF
2.	Cecilia Berkes (HUN)	2:25.3	QF
3.	Daniela Walkowiak (POL)	2:25.8	QF
4.	Eva Marion (FRA)	2:29.4	QF
5.	Eila Eskola (FIN)	2:31.4

Final

	Yelizaveta Dementyeva (URS)	2:18.9
	Therese Zenz (EUA)	2:19.6
	Tove Søby (DEN)	2:22.3
4.	Cecilia Berkes (HUN)	2:23.5
5.	Edith Cochrane (AUS)	2:23.8
6.	Daniela Walkowiak (POL)	2:24.1
7.	Patricia Moody (GBR)	2:25.3
8.	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.