Single Sculls, Women

Women’s rowing events were new to the Olympic Games, but they had been contested at the European Championships since 1954 and the World Championships since 1974. The Europeans went extinct after 1973, however, leaving the Worlds as the best predictor for Olympic success. By that metric, East Germany’s Christine Scheiblich was the strong favorite in Montreal: in 1976 she had the first two World Championship titles under her belt, and would have the next two by the end of her career. In the opening round she outperformed her nearest competitor, Joan Lind of the United States, by nearly five seconds, but the final was much more exciting. Scheiblich led for most of the way, but was seriously challenged by Lind who, after having been in fourth, made a drive to catch the East German and missed gold by only 0.65 seconds, being forced instead to accept silver. The Soviet Union’s Yelena Antonova engaged in a similarly close race for bronze with Bulgaria’s Rositsa Spasova, which she won with only 0.62 seconds to spare.