Rowing in : Sculling and sweep · 595

Sculling with two oars, or sweep with one Steve Redgrave: five Olympic golds, 1984–2000 Rowing is a race between crews who sit facing the stern and drive the boat forward with oars. The championship distance is 2,000 metres, usually six lanes of buoyed water, and the winner is the boat whose bow ball crosses the finish line first. A single sculler races alone. An eight carries eight sweep rowers and a coxswain who steers and calls the race. Between those extremes sit pairs, doubles, fours and quads, some coxed in club racing and coxless at the Olympic regatta.

Rowing is older than the modern Olympics as a public contest. The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race began in 1829, Henley Royal Regatta in 1839, and the international federation in 1892. Women joined the Olympic programme in 1976. The greatest Olympic record in the sport belongs to Steve Redgrave, who won gold at five Games in a row. Elisabeta Lipă of Romania matched the five golds and collected eight Olympic medals across six Games.

A championship regatta is not one race. Crews qualify through heats. Those who miss automatic qualification get a second chance in the repechage. Semi-finals, where the programme uses them, feed the A final for medals and the B final for the next places. Lane draws and conditions matter because a crosswind can favour one side of the course, which is why umpires and the fairness committee watch the water as well as the crews.