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Tactically, it
sounds as ludicrous as sprinting the first five kilometres
of a marathon. To win a 2000-metre rowing race, the crew
must sprint for the first 500 metres.
Such are the
demands in the sport of the Athlete of the Century and the
Oarsome Foursome.
Rowing is an
endurance test that finishes at a speed of up to 10 metres a
second. Crews cover the middle 1000 metres at about 40
strokes per minute, but, over the first and last 500 metres,
shift up a gear to as many as 47.
The modern
master is Steve Redgrave of Great Britain, widely hailed as
the greatest rower ever. A six-time World Champion, he won
gold medals at the last five Olympic Games and has been
loosely crowned Athlete of the Century.
The Olympic
Games added a women's rowing competition in 1976, and women
now compete in six of the 14 medal events. The races are
divided into sculling and sweep oar, with heavyweight and
lightweight divisions.
A rower has
one oar in sweep rowing, an oar in each hand in sculling.
Boats have one, two, four or eight rowers. The eights have a
cox, who steers the boat and directs the crew, but, in all
other boats, one rower steers by controlling a small rudder
with a foot pedal.
Men and women
each compete in single, double and quadruple sculls,
lightweight double scull, the eight and coxless pair. Men
also race in coxless four and lightweight coxless four.
All boats
race in heats, with the top finishers advancing directly
into the semi-finals or the six-boat final. The other boats
get a second chance, with the top boats again qualifying.
The progression system - and any semi-finals - depends on
the number of boats in each event.
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