Rowing as a means of transport was used in the ancient civilisations of Greece, Rome and in the Middle East. Rowing as a sport is about 300 years old. By the mid-nineteenth century, rowing competitions, predominantly in Europe and North America, were flourishing. At the same time, colonial Australians took to rowing with a passion and Australia’s first world champion in any sport was the professional sculler, Edward “Ned” Trickett in 1876. 

Australia first sent rowers to Stockholm 1912. The eight won the Grand Challenge Cup at the Henley Regatta en route to Sweden. A change of personnel between Henley and Stockholm resulted in the crew losing some form and it missed a medal, whilst the Leander crew, which finished second at Henley, won the gold medal for Great Britain.

Australia has forged a very proud history in Olympic rowing, particular in the sculling events. The legendary Henry ‘Bobby’ Pearce won the single sculls in Amsterdam in 1928 and Los Angeles 1932. Mervyn Wood won the single sculls in London in 1948 and finished second at Helsinki four years later.

At the Melbourne 1956 Games, Wood and Murray Riley won the bronze medal in the double sculls. Wood is the only person to carry the Australian flag at two opening ceremonies, in Helsinki and Melbourne. In Melbourne Stuart Mackenzie finished second in the single sculls behind the great Vyacheslav Ivanov of the USSR. Mackenzie then proceeded to win the Diamond Sculls at Henley, arguably the unofficial world championship at the time, for six consecutive years from 1957. At the Beijing Games in 2008 Scott Brennan and David Crawshay had an emphatic win in thee double sculls.

Australia’s first medal by a sweep-oared boat came with the eights in Helsinki. The eights won bronze medals again at Melbourne 1956, Los Angeles 1984, Athens 2004 and silver medals at Mexico City 1968 and Sydney 2000.

The famous “Oarsome Foursome” won the coxless fours in Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta 1996, thereby becoming the first Australian sweep-oared crew to win an Olympic title. Also in Barcelona, Peter Antonie and Stephen Hawkins won the double sculls.

James Tomkins and Drew Ginn combined to win the men's coxless pairs in Athens. At the Beijing Games in 2008, Ginn partnered with Duncan Free to win back-to-back titles. Ginn thus winning three gold from three Games (missed Sydney 2000 with injury).

Australia’s women rowers’ first medal, a bronze, was won at Los Angeles 1984 by the coxed four. Megan Still and Kate Slatter won a gold medal in the coxless pairs in Atlanta 1996 and Slatter joined with Rachael Taylor to finish second in the same event in 2000.

Lightweight crews first rowed in Atlanta where Australia’s men’s and women’s double sculls won bronze medals.

The Olympic rowing regattas in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 confirmed Australia’s position as a power in world rowing. Besides the medals listed previously, the men’s coxless pair (silver) and quadruple sculls (bronze) won medals in Atlanta. In Sydney, the men’s lightweight coxless four (silver), coxless pair (bronze) and coxless four (bronze) won medals. In Athens the men's lightweight coxless four finished second and the women's quadruple sculls finished third. In Beijing as well as gold in the men's pair and double scull, the men's four of James Marburg, Matt Ryan, Cameron McKenzie-McHarg and Frances Hegerty won a surprise silver. 

Australia's most successful Olympic rowers are James Tomkins and Mike McKay with four medals each. Tomkins won gold medals as part of the ‘Oarsome Foursome’ in Barcelona and Atlanta and with Drew Ginn in the men's pair in Athens and a bronze medal with Matthew Long in the men's pair in Sydney. McKay also won gold medals as part of the “Oarsome Foursome” in 1992 and 1996, and silver and bronze medals in the eights in Sydney and Athens respectively.

Rowing was scheduled to appear in Athens in 1896 but bad weather caused its cancellation. It made its Olympic debut in Paris in 1900. The seating configurations of the boats in the Olympic regatta have changed a number of times since then.

Women’s rowing was introduced at the Olympic at Montreal 1976 and lightweight rowing, for men and women, was introduced at Atlanta 1996.

In Olympic rowing 14 different boat classes are raced, eight sculling events in which two oars are used, one in each hand and six sweep-oared events in which the rower uses one oar with both hands. The sculling boat classes are the single, the double and the quadruple sculls with crews of one, two or four athletes respectively, as well as the lightweight double. The sweep rowing categories include the pair, the four, the lightweight four (for men only) and the eight with coxswain, which is perhaps the most spectacular rowing event of all.

For the lightweight events (the lightweight women’s double and the lightweight men’s double and four) the average weight of a men’s crew must not exceed 70kg with the maximum weight for crew members being 72.5kg, for women the average weight of a crew must not exceed 57kg with the maximum weight for crew members being 59kg. All races cover a distance of 2000 metres.

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