Rowing at the 1960 Summer Olympics

Rowing at the 1960 Summer Olympics took place in Italy’s Lake Albano, a volcanic crater lake approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Rome. The 1960 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. Germany topped the medal table for the first time since 1936, with three gold medals and one silver one, while the usually dominant United States was relegated to third position behind the Soviet Union, who won two medals each in gold and silver and one in bronze. The only other nation to win an event was Czechoslovakia, who took the double sculls with a surprise victory from Václav Kozák and Pavel Schmidt.

By entering Estuardo Masías and Víctor Puente into the double sculls, Peru made its début in Olympic rowing in Rome. The United Arab Republic, formed by a merger of Egypt and Syria in 1958, also took part for the first time as a new entity, although Egypt had competed separately in several previous editions and all of the UAR’s rowers in the coxed eights were Egyptian by birth. Nonetheless, the total number of participating nations hit 33, tying the record set in 1952.