Single Sculls, Women

The defending Olympic champion, Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria, was not at the 2012 Games, leaving Yekaterina Karsten of Belarus as perhaps the most distinguished of the rowers in the single sculls. She already had four Olympic medals in the event, gold from 1996 and 2000, silver from 2004, and bronze from 2008, as well as six World Championship titles that spanned from 1997 through 2009 and a bronze medal from the quadruple sculls event at the 1992 Summer Olympics. She had lost the World Championship title in the last two years, first to Frida Svensson of Sweden in 2010, and then to Miroslava Knapková of the Czech Republic in 2011, both of whom were contenders for the gold medal in London. Kim Crow of Australia was a factor as well, as she elected to compete in both the single and double scull events at the 2012 Olympics, capturing silver in the latter race.

The three fastest times in the heats went to Zhang Xiuyun of China, an Olympic silver medalist in the double sculls from 1996, Knapková, and Fie Udby Erichsen of Denmark, a relative unknown. Crow picked up the fastest time in the quarterfinals, with Knapková just over a second on her heels and Erichsen again posting a surprise third-fastest time. By the semi-finals, however, it was Knapková who had earned the best time, followed by Erichsen and Crow, an order that remained through the final, where Knapková took the lead immediately and was untouchable for nearly the entire race; at the 1500m mark, she was over seven seconds ahead of the rest of the pack. Her Olympic rowing gold medal was the first for the Czech Republic since its 1993 independence. The race for silver came down to the wire, but Erichsen edged out Crow by approximately three-tenths of a second, giving Crow bronze, her second medal of the regatta.