Now this was a race in double canoes
It was the Germans, again, that set the pace in the two-man canoe event. The team of Andre Ehrenberg and Michael Senft laid down a solid first run.

But it wasn't good enough to shut out all challengers. With the perennial Czech duo of Jiri Rohan and Miroslav at the bottom of the pack, Ehrenberg and Senft could not be secure in first place with a 167.33-second score.

The gauntlet was thrown first by the Frenchmen Del Rey/Saidi, who knocked almost two seconds off the Germans finish.

But here came more Germans--this time Manfred Berro and Michael Trummer--to return the challenge and go yet faster by another two seconds. It was their turn to see their names at the top of the leader board, with a score of 163.72.

The next pair of Frenchmen responded: Wilfred Forgues and Frank Addison tore out of the start with full abandon and paddles flying. What, whitewater ahead?

Their feverish pace paid off and they broke the 160-second mark, to 158.82. And the crowd went wild. The C-2's waiting game made the best spectating of the weekend.

"After we heard the persons, so we know we had a good time," said Forgues. "I like to hear people. Here we have 14,000 people...it's beautiful."

But two more boats sat in the start eddy, with their chance remaining to knock Addison/Forrgues--nicknamed Harrison Ford among the peripatetic slalom world--off the top of the podium.

But no one could match them, not even Simek-Rohan, who came from nearly last to finish with a silver--they were 3rd in Barcelona--or Ehrenberg/Senft who finished third.

"I had to look to the spectators and they said, 'It's you , it's you!'" explained Wilfred Forgues, a bronze medalist in '92 and now an Olympic champion.

But it was the grandstand's golden performance that won over the athletes.

"The most impressive thing is all the spectators," said American Cathy Hearn. "And I'm saying this from all the athletes. The athletes feel completely loved by the crowd."

Maybe it is the sole Bosnian kayaker and soldier Samir Karabasic who appreciated most the apolitical enthusiasm that spilled from the stands. Finishing his race, he heard the roar of the crowd in appreciation of his effort and his long road to get here--which included escaping wore torn Bosnia by helicopter three years ago to have a chance to come here at all.

His smile was as wide as the winners', and breathing hard, he took off his helmet and kissed the flag on it, and then acknowledged with waving arms and joy his cheering fans.

Update by Boo Turner