# Canoeing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's K-4 500 metres

The men's K-4 500 metres sprint canoeing event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 6 and 7 August 2021 at the Sea Forest Waterway. 44 canoeists (11 boats of 4) from 11 nations competed.

## Background

This was the debut appearance of the event, replacing the 1000 metres men's K-4 race that was held from 1964 to 2016.
The reigning World Champions were Tom Liebscher, Ronald Rauhe, Max Rendschmidt, and Max Lemke of Germany, who were named to the German team. The 2016 Olympic champions in the 1000 metres were Rendschmidt, Liebscher, Max Hoff, and Marcus Gross; Hoff has also been named to the German team.

## Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could qualify one place in the event. A total of 10 qualification places were available, all awarded through the 2019 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships. There were required to be boats from 4 continents qualified. Thus, the top 7 at the World Championships were guaranteed to qualify, with the 8th, 9th, and 10th spots potentially being reserved for continental qualifiers.
Qualifying places were awarded to the NOC, not to the individual canoeist who earned the place.
The World Championships places were allocated as follows:
| Rank | Kayaker | Nation | Qualification | Selected competitors |
| 1 | Tom Liebscher Ronald Rauhe Max Rendschmidt Max Lemke | Germany | Quota #1 (Continent #1) | |
| 2 | Saúl Craviotto Carlos Arévalo Rodrigo Germade Marcus Walz | Spain | Quota #2 | |
| 3 | Erik Vlček Adam Botek Csaba Zalka Samuel Baláž | Slovakia | Quota #3 | |
| 4 | Aleksandr Sergeyev Oleg Gusev Vitaly Ershov Artem Kuzakhmetov | ROC | Quota #4 | |
| 5 | Balázs Birkás Bence Nádas Sándor Tótka István Kuli | Hungary | Quota #5 | |
| 6 | Emanuel Silva João Ribeiro David Varela Messias Baptista | Portugal | Quota #6 | |
| 7 | Aliaksei Misiuchenka Stanislau Daineka Uladzislau Litvinau Dzmitry Natynchyk | Belarus | Quota #7 | |
| 8 | Maxime Beaumont Guillaume Burger Francis Mouget Guillaume Le Floch Decorchemont | France | Not qualified | — |
| 9 | Daniel Havel Jakub Špicar Lukáš Nepraš Jakub Zavřel | Czech Republic | Not qualified | — |
| 10 | Lachlan Tame Matthew Goble Thomas Green Jackson Collins | Australia | Quota #8 (Continent #2) | |
| 11 | Nicola Ripamonti Mauro Pra Floriani Andrea Di Liberto Alessandro Gnecchi | Italy | Not qualified | — |
| 12 | Momotaro Matsushita Hiroki Fujishima Keiji Mizumoto Yusuke Miyata | Japan | Quota #9 (Continent #3) | |
| 13 | Aurimas Lankas Edvinas Ramanauskas Mindaugas Maldonis Simonas Maldonis | Lithuania | Not qualified | — |
| 14 | Mark de Jonge Pierre-Luc Poulin Nicholas Matveev Simon McTavish | Canada | Quota #10 (Continent #4) | |

## Competition format

Sprint canoeing uses a three-round format for events with 10 boats, with heats, semifinals, and finals. The specifics of the progression format depend on the number of boats ultimately entered.
* Heats: 2 heats of 5 boats each. The top 2 in each heat (4 boats total) advance directly to the final. The remaining 6 boats compete in the semifinal.
* Semifinal: 1 heat of 6 boats. The top 4 advance to the final; the remaining 2 boats are eliminated in 9th and 10th place.
* Final: 1 heat of 8 boats. The medals and 4th through 8th place are awarded.
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 "4" 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 | Mon 2 | Tue 3 | Tue 3 | Wed 4 | Wed 4 | Thu 5 | Thu 5 | Fri 6 | Fri 6 | Sat 7 | Sat 7 |
| Men's K-4 500 m | | | | | | | | | H | H | ½ | F |

## Canoer per team

| Number | Rowers | Nation |
| 1 | Lachlan Tame - Riley Fitzsimmons - Murray Stewart - Jordan Wood | Australia |
| 2 | Uladzislau Litvinau - Dzmitry Natynchyk - Ilya Fedarenka - Mikita Borykau | Belarus |
| 3 | Nicholas Matveev - Mark de Jonge - Pierre-Luc Poulin - Simon McTavish | Canada |
| 4 | Yang Xiaoxu - Wang Congkang - Zhang Dong - Bu Tingkai | China |
| 5 | Max Rendschmidt - Ronald Rauhe - Tom Liebscher - Max Lemke | Germany |
| 6 | Bence Nádas - Kornél Béke - Kolos Csizmadia - Sándor Tótka | Hungary |
| 7 | Keiji Mizumoto - Momotaro Matsushita - Yusuke Miyata - Hiroki Fujishima | Japan |
| 8 | Emanuel Silva - João Ribeiro - Messias Baptista - David Varela | Portugal |
| 9 | Artem Kuzakhmetov - Aleksandr Sergeyev - Roman Anoshkin - Maxim Spesivtsev | ROC |
| 10 | Samuel Baláž - Denis Myšák - Erik Vlček - Adam Botek | Slovakia |
| 11 | Saúl Craviotto - Marcus Walz - Carlos Arévalo - Rodrigo Germade | Spain |

## Results
### Heats

Progression System: 1st-2nd to SF, rest to QF.

### Quarterfinal

Progression System: 1st-6th to SF, rest out
| Rank | Lane | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | Hungary | 1:23.727 | SF |
| 2 | 5 | Belarus | 1:23.848 | SF |
| 3 | 3 | China | 1:24.036 | SF |
| 4 | 7 | Portugal | 1:24.325 | SF |
| 5 | 4 | Canada | 1:24.979 | SF |
| 6 | 6 | ROC | 1:25.564 | SF |
| 7 | 1 | Japan | 1:28.211 | |

### Semifinals

Progression System: 1st-4th to Final, rest out.

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Country | Time |
| | 5 | Germany | 1:22.219 |
| | 4 | Spain | 1:22.445 |
| | 3 | Slovakia | 1:23.534 |
| 4 | 1 | ROC | 1:23.654 |
| 5 | 7 | Belarus | 1:24.510 |
| 6 | 6 | Australia | 1:25.025 |
| 7 | 2 | Hungary | 1:25.068 |
| 8 | 8 | Portugal | 1:25.324 |