Canoeing at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Women's K-1 500 metres

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.

Heats
The ten competitors first raced in three heats. The top four finishers in each heat moved directly to the final.

Final
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.