Summer Olympic Sports >>Rowing

ABOUT

Tactically, it sounds as ludicrous as sprinting the first five kilometers of a marathon.  To win a 2000-metre rowing race, the crew must sprint for the first 500 meters.

Such are the demands in the sport of the Athlete of the Century and the Oarsome Foursome.

Rowing is an endurance test that finishes at a speed of up to 10 meters a second.  Crews cover the middle 1000 meters at about 40 strokes per minute, but, over the first and last 500 meters, shift up a gear to as many as 47.

The modern master is Steve Redgrave of Great Britain, widely hailed as the greatest rower ever.  A six-time World Champion, he won gold medals at the last five Olympic Games and has been loosely crowned Athlete of the Century.

COMPETITION

The Olympic Games added a women's rowing competition in 1976, and women now compete in six of the 14 medal events.  The races are divided into sculling and sweep oar, with heavyweight and lightweight divisions.

A rower has one oar in sweep rowing, an oar in each hand in sculling.  Boats have one, two, four or eight rowers.  The eights have a cox, who steers the boat and directs the crew, but, in all other boats, one rower steers by controlling a small rudder with a foot pedal.

Men and women each compete in single, double and quadruple sculls, lightweight double scull, the eight and coxless pair.  Men also race in coxless four and lightweight coxless four.

All boats race in heats, with the top finishers advancing directly into the semi-finals or the six-boat final.  The other boats get a second chance, with the top boats again qualifying.  The progression system - and any semi-finals - depends on the number of boats in each event.

LIST OF EVENTS *

• Coxless pair (2-) Men

• Double sculls (2x) Men

• Eight with coxswain (8+) Men

• Four without coxswain (4-) Men

• Lightweight coxless four (4-) Men

• Lightweight double sculls (2x) Men

• Quadruple sculls without coxsw Men

• Single sculls (1x) Men

• Double sculls (2x) Women

• Eight with coxswain (8+) Women

• Lightweight double sculls (2x) Women

• pair without coxswain (2-) Women

• Quadruple sculls without coxsw Women

• Single sculls (1x) Women