Rowing at the Summer Olympics facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Rowing at the Summer Olympics

Governing body	World Rowing Federation
Events	14 (men: 7; women: 7)
Games
1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Medalists

Rowing has been a part of the Summer Olympics since the 1900 Games. It was actually planned for the 1896 Summer Olympics but had to be canceled because of bad weather. For a long time, only men were allowed to compete. Then, at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, women's rowing events were added. This was a big step that encouraged countries to support women in rowing and helped the sport grow a lot for women. Later, in 1996, Lightweight rowing events were introduced. These are special races for crews where the rowers have a certain weight limit.

The World Rowing Federation is in charge of deciding who gets to compete in the Olympic rowing events. This organization is even older than the modern Olympics themselves! It was the very first international sports group to join the modern Olympic movement.

Olympic Rowing History
Rowing Events at the Olympics
- Current Olympic Rowing Events
- Changes to Events Over Time
Race Distances
How Rowers Qualify for the Olympics
Olympic Rowing Medals by Country
Top Rowing Medal Winners at Each Olympics
Rowing Stars: Athletes with Many Medals
See also

Olympic Rowing History

Rowing has been a key part of the Summer Olympics for many years. Here's a quick look at how it has changed over time:

Games	Year	Events	Best Nation
1
2	1900	5	France
3	1904	5	United States
4	1908	4	Great Britain
5	1912	4	Great Britain
6
7	1920	5	United States
8	1924	7	United States
9	1928	7	United States
10	1932	7	United States
11	1936	7	Germany
12
13
14	1948	7	Great Britain
15	1952	7	United States
16	1956	7	United States
17	1960	7	United Team of Germany
18	1964	7	United States
19	1968	7	East Germany
20	1972	7	East Germany
21	1976	14	East Germany
22	1980	14	East Germany
23	1984	14	Romania
24	1988	14	East Germany
25	1992	14	Germany
26	1996	14	Australia
27	2000	14	Romania
28	2004	14	Romania
29	2008	14	Great Britain
30	2012	14	Great Britain
31	2016	14	Great Britain
32	2020	14	New Zealand

Rowing Events at the Olympics

At the 2016 Olympics and other recent Games, there were 14 different rowing events. These events are split between men and women, and also include lightweight categories.

Current Olympic Rowing Events

Men's Events:

* Single sculls (one rower, two oars) * Double sculls (two rowers, two oars each) * Quadruple sculls (four rowers, two oars each) * Coxless pair (two rowers, one oar each, no coxswain) * Coxless four (four rowers, one oar each, no coxswain) * Eight (eight rowers, one oar each, with a coxswain)

Lightweight Men's Events:

* Double sculls * Coxless four

Women's Events:

* Single sculls * Double sculls * Quad sculls * Coxless pair * Eight

Lightweight Women's Events:

* Double sculls

Changes to Events Over Time

The lightweight events were almost removed in 2002. The IOC thought that weight-category events should only be in combat sports (like boxing and wrestling). However, the main board of the IOC decided against this, so lightweight rowing continued.

To make sure there's an equal number of events for men and women, the men's lightweight fours event was removed starting from the 2020 Olympics. In its place, the women's coxless fours event was brought back. The IOC agreed to this change in June 2017.

In the very early Olympic Games (like 1900 and 1904), there were other types of rowing events, such as junior or novice categories. Many other boat types have appeared in the Olympics over the years but were later removed. Most of these were boats that used to have a coxswain (the person who steers and directs the crew), except for the "eights" which always have a coxswain.

Some of the past events included:

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

Race Distances

Today, all Olympic rowing races are 2000 meters long. This distance became the standard at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. The only exception was the 1948 London Games, where the course was 1850 meters.

Before 1912, races were held over different distances:

1750 meters in Paris (1900)
3218 meters in St. Louis (1904)
2414 meters in London (1908)

The women's races used to be 1000 meters long until 1988, when they were also changed to 2000 meters to match the men's races.

In the early Games, races were often just between two or three boats. The modern format, where six boats race side-by-side, was first used at the 1936 Olympic Games. This has been the standard ever since, except for the 1952 Olympic Games where races had four or five boats.

How Rowers Qualify for the Olympics

Only a limited number of crews can race at the Olympics. The International Rowing Federation (FISA) organizes special events to decide which countries and rowers get to compete. At the Olympic Games, each country (represented by its National Olympic Committee) can only have one boat in each event.

The main way to qualify is by doing well at the World Rowing Championships held the year before the Olympics. There are also "Continental Qualification Regattas" held in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and a final event open to everyone else. FISA announces how many crews can qualify from each of these events every year.

If a boat finishes high enough at the World Championships, that country earns a spot in that event. The rowers in the crew can be changed before the Olympics. However, at the qualification regattas, it's the specific crew that wins that qualifies, and those same rowers must compete in that event at the Olympics.

Olympic Rowing Medals by Country

This table shows which countries have won the most medals in Olympic rowing, up to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	33	32	24	89
2	East Germany (GDR)	33	7	8	48
3	Great Britain (GBR)	31	25	14	70
4	Germany (GER)	23	16	14	53
5	Romania (ROM)	20	12	9	41
6	New Zealand (NZL)	14	5	10	29
7	Australia (AUS)	13	15	16	44
8	Soviet Union (URS)	12	20	10	42
9	Italy (ITA)	11	14	16	41
10	Canada (CAN)	10	17	16	43
11	France (FRA)	8	15	13	36
12	Netherlands (NED)	7	14	14	35
13	Switzerland (SUI)	7	8	9	24
14	Denmark (DEN)	7	5	13	25
15	Poland (POL)	4	4	11	19
16	West Germany (FRG)	4	4	6	14
17	United Team of Germany (EUA)	4	4	1	9
18	Norway (NOR)	3	7	8	18
19	Bulgaria (BUL)	3	4	7	14
20	Finland (FIN)	3	1	3	7
21	China (CHN)	2	4	6	12
22	Croatia (CRO)	2	3	2	7
23	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	2	2	7	11
24	Belarus (BLR)	2	1	4	7
25	Czech Republic (CZE)	1	3	1	5
26	Slovenia (SLO)	1	1	3	5
26	Yugoslavia (YUG)	1	1	3	5
28	Argentina (ARG)	1	1	2	4
28	Greece (GRE)	1	1	2	4
30	Ireland (IRL)	1	1	1	3
	South Africa (RSA)	1	1	1	3
	Ukraine (UKR)	1	1	1	3
33	Russia (RUS)	1	0	2	3
34	Mixed team (ZZX)	1	0	0	1
35	Belgium (BEL)	0	6	2	8
36	Austria (AUT)	0	3	3	6
37	Estonia (EST)	0	2	1	3
38	Republic of China (ROC)	0	2	0	2
38	Sweden (SWE)	0	2	0	2
40	Uruguay (URU)	0	1	3	4
41	Hungary (HUN)	0	1	2	3
41	Lithuania (LTU)	0	1	2	3
43	Spain (ESP)	0	1	0	1
44	Russian Empire (RU1)	0	0	1	1
44	Unified Team (EUN)	0	0	1	1
Totals (45 entries)		268	268	272	808

Top Rowing Medal Winners at Each Olympics

This table shows which country won the most rowing medals at each Summer Olympic Games.

Games of	Leader	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
France, 1900 Paris	France (FRA)	2	3	1	6
United States, 1904 St. Louis	United States (USA)	5	4	4	13
United Kingdom, 1908 London	Great Britain (GBR)	4	3	1	8
Sweden, 1912 Stockholm	Great Britain (GBR)	2	2	0	4
Belgium, 1920 Antwerp	United States (USA)	3	1	0	4
France, 1924 Paris	United States (USA)	2	1	2	5
Netherlands, 1928 Amsterdam	United States (USA)	2	2	1	5
United States, 1932 Los Angeles	United States (USA)	3	1	0	4
Germany, 1936 Berlin	Germany (GER)	5	1	1	7
United Kingdom, 1948 London	Great Britain (GBR)	2	1	0	3
Finland, 1952 Helsinki	United States (USA)	2	0	1	3
Australia, 1956 Melbourne	United States (USA)	3	2	1	6
Italy, 1960 Rome	United Team of Germany (EUA)	3	1	0	4
Japan, 1964 Tokyo	United States (USA)	2	1	1	4
Mexico, 1968 Mexico City	East Germany (GDR)	2	1	0	3
West Germany, 1972 Munich	East Germany (GDR)	3	1	3	7
Canada, 1976 Montreal	East Germany (GDR)	9	3	2	14
Soviet Union, 1980 Moscow	East Germany (GDR)	11	1	2	14
United States, 1984 Los Angeles	Romania (ROU)	6	2	0	8
South Korea, 1988 Seoul	East Germany (GDR)	8	1	1	10
Spain, 1992 Barcelona	Germany (GER)	4	3	3	10
United States, 1996 Atlanta	Australia (AUS)	2	1	3	6
Australia, 2000 Sydney	Romania (ROU)	3	0	0	3
Greece, 2004 Athens	Romania (ROU)	3	0	0	3
China, 2008 Beijing	Great Britain (GBR)	2	2	2	6
United Kingdom, 2012 London	Great Britain (GBR)	4	2	3	9
Brazil, 2016 Rio de Janeiro	Great Britain (GBR)	3	2	0	5
Japan, 2020 Tokyo	New Zealand (NZL)	3	2	0	5

Rowing Stars: Athletes with Many Medals

This table highlights rowers who have won at least three gold medals at the Olympics.

Athlete (nation)	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Notes
Elisabeta Lipă Romania	1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004	5	2	1	8	Won her first and last gold medals 20 years apart!
Steve Redgrave Great Britain	1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000	5	0	1	6	Won gold medals in five Olympics in a row. He's the only endurance athlete to do this!
Georgeta Damian Romania	2000, 2004, 2008	5	0	1	6	Won gold in both the pair and the eights in 2000 and 2004, and the pair again in 2008.
Doina Ignat Romania	1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008	4	1	1	6	Was part of Romania's women's eight team that won three gold medals in a row.
Kathrin Boron Germany	1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008	4	0	1	5	Won four Olympic golds in a row. She also won a bronze in her last Olympics.
Viorica Susanu Romania	1996, 2000, 2004, 2008	4	0	1	5	Won three medals in the women's eight and two in the pair.
Matthew Pinsent Great Britain	1992, 1996, 2000, 2004	4	0	0	4	Won four Olympic golds in a row. He won with Steve Redgrave in 1992 and 1996.
Jack Beresford Great Britain	1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936	3	2	0	5	The first rower to win a medal at five Olympics in a row.
Constanța Burcică Romania	1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008	3	1	1	5	Won three gold medals in the women's lightweight double sculls.
Elena Georgescu Romania	1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008	3	1	1	5	Was the Coxswain for Romania's women's eight team.
Drew Ginn Australia	1996, 2004, 2008, 2012	3	1	0	4	A member of the famous "Oarsome Foursome" team.
Eskild Ebbesen Denmark	1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012	3	0	2	5	Won all his medals in the lightweight coxless four event.
Marnie McBean Canada	1992, 1996	3	0	1	4	Along with her rowing partner Kathleen Heddle, she has the most gold medals for a Canadian rower.
Kathleen Heddle Canada	1992, 1996	3	0	1	4	Won all her medals with her rowing partner Marnie McBean.
James Tomkins Australia	1992, 1996, 2000, 2004	3	0	1	4	The Australian rower with the most Olympic medals.
John B. Kelly Sr. United States	1920, 1924	3	0	0	3	The first rower to win three gold medals. He was also the father of movie star and princess, Grace Kelly.
Paul Costello United States	1920, 1924, 1928	3	0	0	3	The first man to win three gold medals in the same event (the double sculls). He was also a cousin of John B. Kelly Sr..
Vyacheslav Ivanov Soviet Union	1956, 1960, 1964	3	0	0	3	Won all his medals in the single sculls event.
Siegfried Brietzke East Germany	1972, 1976, 1980	3	0	0	3	The first German rower to win three gold medals.
Pertti Karppinen Finland	1976, 1980, 1984	3	0	0	3	Won all his medals in the single sculls event.
Agostino Abbagnale Italy	1988, 1996, 2000	3	0	0	3	His brothers, Carmine and Giuseppe, also won two gold medals each.
Liliana Gafencu Romania	1996, 2000, 2004	3	0	0	3	Won all three of her medals in Romania's women's eight team.
Elle Logan United States	2008, 2012, 2016	3	0	0	3	Won all three of her medals in the USA women's eight team.
Pete Reed Great Britain	2008, 2012, 2016	3	0	0	3	Won two gold medals in the coxless four and one in the eight.
Andrew Triggs Hodge Great Britain	2008, 2012, 2016	3	0	0	3	Won two gold medals in the coxless four and one in the eight.
Hamish Bond New Zealand	2012, 2016, 2020	3	0	0	3	Won two gold medals in the coxless pair and one in the eight.