Canoeing at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's K-2 500 metres
The men's K-2 500 metres competition in canoeing at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park in Beijing. The K-2 event is raced in two-person kayaks. This would be the last time the event would take place at the Summer Olympics. On 13 August 2009, it was announced by the International Canoe Federation that the men's 500 m events would be replaced by 200 m events at the 2012 Summer Olympics with one of them being K-1 200 m for the women. The other events for men at 200 m will be C-1, C-2, and K-1.
Competition consists of three rounds: the heats, the semifinals, and the final. All boats compete in the heats. The top three finishers in each of the two heats advances directly to the final, while the nine fastest times in both heats move on to the semifinals. The top three finishers in the semifinal join the heats winners in the final.
[|Heats] took place on August 19, semifinals took place on August 21, and finals on August 23.
Schedule
All times are China Standard Time| Date | Time | Round |
| Tuesday, August 19, 2008 | 17:10-17:30 | Heats |
| Thursday, August 21, 2008 | 16:40-16:50 | [|Semifinal] |
| Saturday, August 23, 2008 | 16:35-16:50 | [|Final] |
Medalists
Results
Heats
Qualification Rules: 1..3->Final, 4..7->Semifinal + 8th best time, Rest OutHeat 1
Heat 2
Semifinal
Qualification Rules: 1..3->Final, Rest Out| Rank | Athletes | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Richard Dober, Jr., Andrew Willows | 1:31.232 | QF | |
| 2 | Marek Twardowski, Adam Wysocki | 1:31.481 | QF | |
| 3 | Kim Wraae Knudsen, René Holten Poulsen | 1:31.796 | QF | |
| 4 | Krists Straume, Kristaps Zaļupe | 1:32.649 | ||
| 5 | Alvydas Duonėla, Egidijus Balčiūnas | 1:32.887 | ||
| 6 | Alexey Dergunov, Dmitriy Kaltenberger | 1:33.512 | ||
| 7 | Clint Robinson, Jacob Clear | 1:33.839 | ||
| 8 | Mika Hokajärvi, Kalle Mikkonen | 1:34.994 | ||
| 9 | José Giovanni Ramos, Gabriel Rodríguez | 1:37.285 |