Olympic Rowing

Eton Dorney, Dorney Lake, Windsor,
Olympic Rowing image
Ad
Event has ended
This event ended on Saturday 4th of August 2012
Admission
See website
Location

Eton Dorney, Dorney Lake, Windsor,

Nearest Tube/Rail Stations
Taplow 1.55 miles

550 rowers battle it out for 14 gold medal places

Rowing is one of the only sports that has featured (at least in the programme) of every single modern Olympic Games. The event had to be cancelled in the 1896 games due to particularly rough conditions, but this is the only time that the event has not actually managed to take place.

Women’s rowing was relatively late to become part of the Games with the first event, happening in 1976. A new lightweight event was also introduced in 1996. It is thought that the first rowing races date back to Shakespearean times when people would bet against each other on which ferry would reach the edge of the River Thames bank first.

Rowing became a modern sport in the 19th century and was given a boost when the universities of Oxford and Cambridge began to compete regularly between themselves.

In the modern version, there are two key types of rowing, sweep rowing and sculling. With sweep rowing a single oar is used and with sculling an oar is held in each hand. Sweeping rowing takes place in teams of two four and eight with the latter being steered by a cox. Sculling on the other hand does not have the eight person version and, therefore, no cox is used, but there is an individual version.

Events take place over 2 kilometres in flat water with a total of six lanes used.

Tags: Sport

User Reviews

There are no user reviews