Rowing

Rowing was first known as a means of transportation in the ancient cultures of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Rowing as a sport probably began in England in the 17th and early 18th centuries. By the 19th century, rowing was popular in Europe and had been brought to America. Early races were usually contested by professionals, with heavy betting on races common. Competitive rowing precedes most of the other Olympic sports in its recorded modern history. The first Oxford-Cambridge race took place in 1828, and Yale and Harvard first rowed against each other in 1852. The sport was also the first summer Olympic sport to form an international governing body, in 1892.

Only in 1896 has rowing not been contested in the Olympics. It was actually on the program that year, but rough seas forced cancellation of the events. There have been several events for men in both sweep events (single oar used by alternate oarsmen) and sculling events (two oars used by a single sculler or by two or more scullers). Through 1992, these included races for single, double, and quadruple sculls, and, in sweep events, races for two and four oarsmen/women, with and without coxswain, and the large boats with eight oarsmen/women and a coxswain.

Women were admitted to the Olympic rowing program in 1976. The rowing program for the 1996 Olympics underwent a drastic change, with the introduction of lightweight events. Although women initially had a slightly smaller rowing program than men at the Olympics, in 2020 the programs for men and women were equalized.

The United States was the dominant nation in Olympic rowing until about 1960. The Soviet Union quickly became a power in the sport but, during its existence, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was by far the preeminent nation (in the 1970s and 1980s). Currently, the medal table is led by the USA, followed by East Germany, Great Britain and Germany.

The top list of Olympic rowers, however, mainly consists of British and Romanian competitors. In the men’s competition, British Steven Redgrave leads the medal table with five gold medals, followed by his compatriot Matthew Pinsent, with four. Redgrave is also the male Olympian with the most medals, with six, followed by British Jack Beresford and Dane Eskild Ebbesen, both with five medals. In the women’s competition, Romanian rowers Elisabeta Oleniuc-Lipă and Georgeta Damian-Andrunache lead the gold medal count, with five. They also lead the overall medal count, with eight and six medals, respectively. Two other female Romanian rowers have also won a total of six medals: Doina Ignat and Veronica Cogeanu-Cochela.

The world governing body of rowing is World Rowing, which was founded as the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés d’Aviron (FISA) on 25 June 1892, in Torino, with five founding members: Adriatica (rowing clubs from Trieste, which belonged to Austria at that time, but they did not want to represent Austria), Belgium, France, Italy, and Switzerland. The name was changed to World Rowing in October 2020. As of 2022, World Rowing has 156 member nations.