Canoeing at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Slalom
C-1	men
C-2	men
K-1	men	women
Sprint
C-1 1000 m	men
C-2 1000 m	men
K-1 500 m		women
K-1 1000 m	men
K-2 500 m		women
K-2 1000 m	men
K-4 1000 m	men
v t e

The women's K-2 500 metres event was a pairs kayaking event conducted as part of the Canoeing at the 1972 Summer Olympics program.

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Lyudmila Pinayeva and Yekaterina Kuryshko (URS)	Ilse Kaschube and Petra Grabowski (GDR)	Maria Nichiforov and Viorica Dumitru (ROU)

The 12 crews first raced in two heats on September 5. The top three finishers from each of the heats advanced directly to the final; the remaining six teams were relegated to the semifinal.

Heat 1
1.	Lyudmila Pinayeva and Yekaterina Kuryshko (URS)	2:00.31	QF
2.	Ilse Kaschube and Petra Grabowski (GDR)	2:00.96	QF
3.	Anna Pfeffer and Katalin Hollósy (HUN)	2:01.87	QF
4.	Izabella Antonowicz and Ewa Grajkowska (POL)	2:04.30	QS
5.	Natasha Petrova and Petrana Koleva (BUL)	2:05.16	QS
6.	Majorie Horner-Dixon and Claudia Hunt (CAN)	2:11.24	QS
Heat 2
1.	Maria Nichiforov and Viorica Dumitru (ROU)	1:59.59	QF
2.	Roswitha Esser and Renate Breuer (FRG)	2:00.32	QF
3.	Mieke Jaapies and Maria van der Holst-Blijlevens (NED)	2:03.33	QF
4.	Anastászie Fridrichová and Oldřiška Kaplanová (TCH)	2:06.73	QS
5.	Helen Woodhouse and Pamela Renshaw (GBR)	2:10.22	QS
6.	Nancy Purves and Linda Murray (USA)	2:11.50	QS

The top three finishers in the semifinal (raced on September 8) advanced to the final.

Semifinal
1.	Izabella Antonowicz and Ewa Grajkowska (POL)	1:55.50	QF
2.	Natasha Petrova and Petrana Koleva (BUL)	1:57.31	QF
3.	Anastászie Fridrichová and Oldřiška Kaplanová (TCH)	1:58.25	QF
4.	Nancy Purves and Linda Murray (USA)	2:01.27
5.	Majorie Horner-Dixon and Claudia Hunt (CAN)	2:03.60
6.	Helen Woodhouse and Pamela Renshaw (GBR)	2:04.44

The final was held on September 9.

	Lyudmila Pinayeva and Yekaterina Kuryshko (URS)	1:53.50
	Ilse Kaschube and Petra Grabowski (GDR)	1:54.30
	Maria Nichiforov and Viorica Dumitru (ROU)	1:55.01
4.	Anna Pfeffer and Katalin Hollósy (HUN)	1:55.12
5.	Roswitha Esser and Renate Breuer (FRG)	1:55.64
6.	Izabella Antonowicz and Ewa Grajkowska (POL)	1:57.45
7.	Mieke Jaapies and Maria van der Holst-Blijlevens (NED)	1:58.11
8.	Natasha Petrova and Petrana Koleva (BUL)	1:59.40
9.	Anastászie Fridrichová and Oldřiška Kaplanová (TCH)	1:59.84

• 1972 Summer Olympics official report Volume 3. p. 496. (in English, French, and German)
• Sports-reference.com 1972 women's K-2 500 m results.