Elisabeta Lipă
Matthew Pinsent
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Elisabeta Lipă leads 4 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Elisabeta Lipă at #2 and Matthew Pinsent at #4.
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The case for Elisabeta Lipă
Five Olympic golds and eight Olympic medals across six Games, from Los Angeles 1984 to Athens 2004. She raced in more than one boat class as Romanian women's rowing rebuilt itself around a small group of athletes who simply kept qualifying. The five golds match Redgrave's. The eight medals do not: nobody in the sport has a longer Olympic medal list. A ranking that only counts men's sweep rowing misses the most decorated career the regatta has produced.
The case for Matthew Pinsent
Four Olympic golds, all of them, from the coxless pair with Redgrave in 1992 and 1996 to the coxless fours of 2000 and 2004. He is the other half of the pair that carried British rowing from Barcelona to Atlanta, and then the stroke-side constant of the fours that followed. Four golds in four Games, with no Olympic medal of another colour, is as clean a sweep career as the sport has. Redgrave's fifth gold is the reason Pinsent sits fourth rather than beside him.