Rowing at the 1952 Summer Olympics

Rowing at the 1952 Summer Olympics took place in the Helsinki neighborhood of Meilahti, after plans to host it in Taivallahti were abandoned. The 1952 program remained that same as it had been since 1924 and would continue to be until 1976, when it was expanded to include women and the men’s quadruple sculls. The United States resumed its rowing dominance by topping the rankings as the only nation to win two gold medals and one of only two (along with the Soviet Union’s inaugural appearance) to capture three medals in total.

Finland, the host nation, won its first Olympic rowing medal by taking bronze in the coxless fours, as did Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia by taking gold in the coxless and coxed fours respectively. Two new entities, Saar and the Soviet Union, appeared in rowing events in Helsinki, although both had appeared in other forms at previous editions. Chile and Romania made their débuts by entering competitors in the single sculls and the coxed eights respectively. These nations raised the number of participating countries to a record of 33 and helped increase the distribution of medals to a greater degree than in any previous Olympics.