Rowing in 2: Steering and the coxswain
Rowing is on the programme for the first modern Games in Athens, but the races are not held. Rough water in the Bay of Zea is the reason recorded in Olympic histories. The sport waits until Paris. Keep Rowing with “Steering and the coxswain” and 2 from 2. Rowing is actually contested at the Paris Games, on a river course rather than a modern buoyed lake. Entries, boat classes and distances are not yet the standardised Olympic programme of later decades.
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.
The object is to cross 2,000 metres first in the prescribed boat class. Crews race in lanes on still water. Each boat must carry a bow ball, a small white ball on the bow that makes the hull safer in a clash and gives the finish judges a clear point. Timing and placing are taken when that ball reaches the line. Photo finish decides races that the eye cannot separate.
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.
The notice keeps 2, “Steering and the coxswain,” and 2. Those three are the bones of Rowing. Keep Rowing with “Steering and the coxswain” and 2 from 2. 22
Figures to keep
- Year of the rule
- 2
- Figure in the game
- 2
- Sport
- Rowing
- Rule line
- Steering and the coxswain