Rowing at the Summer Olympics - Definition and Overview

Rowing at the Summer Olympics has occurred since 1896. However, the first year was cancelled due to bad weather so rowing first occurred at the 1900 games. Only men were allowed to compete until 1976 when women's events were introduced at Montreal.

Lightweight events were introduced to the games in 1996. However, this came under treat in 2002 when the Programme Commission of the IOC recommended that, outside combat sports and weightlifting, there should not be weight category events. The Executive Board overturned this recommendation and lightweight rowing continues.

At the current Olympics the following 14 events are offered:

• Men: quad sculls, double sculls, single sculls, eight, coxless four, coxless pair
• Lightweight Men: coxless four, double sculls
• Women: quad sculls, double sculls, single sculls, eight, coxless pair
• Lightweight Women: double sculls

Race Distance

Men's races have been raced over the standard 2,000 m except in 1900 (1,750 m), 1904 (1.5 miles), 1906 (various), 1908 (1.5 miles) and 1948 (1,880 m). The 1908 and 1948 were held over the Henley Royal Regatta course.

Women's races were 1,000 m until 1988 when they were changed to 2,000 m.

In modern games, the races are between 6 boats side by side but earlier games were limited to 2 or 3.

Qualification

There is a limited number of places for racing so FISA hold qualification events in order to determine who competes at the Olympic Games. At the games, each National Olympic Committee can only have one boat per event.

The main qualification comes from the previous year's World Rowing Championships. Other qualifying events are called "Continental Qualification Regattas", of which 4 are held during the year of the games - Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Final (open to everyone else). Each year FISA issues details of how many crews qualify at each regatta.

At the World Champs, the top finishing boats guarantee a place for that country - the rowers in the crew can be changed before the games. At the qualification regattas, it is the crew that qualifies and no changes can be made (except for illness or injury).

Discontinued Events

In the early games (1900 and 1904) there were several other categories of events (Junior, Novice, Association, and Intermediate). A number of other boat classes have made an appearance at several games but were subsequently dropped. These were:

• Men's Coxed Pair (1900-1992)
• Women's Coxed Four (1976-1988)
• Women's Coxed Quad Sculls (1976-1984)
• Women's Coxless Four (1992)
• Men's Coxed Four with Inriggers (1912)
• Six-Man Naval Rowing Boats (1906)
• 17-Man Naval Rowing Boats (1906)

External links

• Olympic Rowing Medallists (http://www.hickoksports.com/history/olrowing.shtml) at HickokSports.com