Canoeing at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games:

At the first two European championships, Helmut Cämmerer and Ewald Tilker had earned Germany the title in this event. Sweden's Nils Wallin had placed second on both occasions, but like Tilker he was not competing in the kilometre in Berlin. Cämmerer was, as was Austria's Gregor Hradetzky, who had won two European titles in the folding kayak, and had claimed the Olympic title in that discipline a day earlier.

The preliminaries made clear Cämmerer and Hradetzky were in a league of their own, about ten seconds clear from the rest of the field. In the final, Cämmerer had the best start, being trailed by Hradetzky and Jaap Kraaier. Hradetzky levelled with Cämmerer with about 200 m left, and then pulled away in a final sprint to take his second gold of the Games.