Matthew Pinsent
Vyacheslav Ivanov
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Matthew Pinsent leads 4 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Matthew Pinsent at #4 and Vyacheslav Ivanov at #7.
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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.
The case for Vyacheslav Ivanov
The first man to win three consecutive Olympic single-scull golds, in 1956, 1960 and 1964. World Championships were not there for the start of the run. The achievement is the Olympic one, and it is the template Karppinen later matched. Ivanov sits just behind him here because the later streak came against a deeper international field and a settled 2,000-metre championship. That is a judgement about eras, and it is open to the opposite reading: Ivanov did it first.