Women's rowing is the participation of women in the sport of rowing. Women row in all boat classes, from single scull to eights, across the same age ranges and standards as men, from junior amateur through university-level to elite athlete.[1][2] Typically men and women compete in separate crews although mixed crews and mixed team events also take place.[3] Coaching for women is similar to that for men.[4]
At an international level, the first women's races were introduced at the 1951 European Rowing Championships as test events. After three successful tests, these became official championships as accredited by the International Rowing Federation (FISA) at the 1954 European Rowing Championships. Women's rowing was added to the Olympic Games programme in 1976 at a distance of 1000 metres. This was extended to 2000 metres from 1984 onwards at world championship level, and from 1988 at the Summer Olympics, consistent with men's rowing events at the Olympics.[5]
For most of its history, rowing has been a male dominated sport. Although rowing's roots as a sport in the modern Olympics can be traced back to the original 1896 games in Athens, it was not until the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal that women were allowed to participate (at a distance of 1000 metres) – well after their fellow athletes in similar sports such as swimming, athletics, cycling, and canoeing. This increased the growth of women's rowing because it created the incentive for national rowing federations to support women's events. Rowing at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London included six events for women compared with eight for men.[6]
Lithograph from 1889 depicting female rower holding an oar
Despite its male domination, women's competitive rowing can be traced back to the early 19th century, and an image of a women's double scull race made the cover of Harper's Weekly in 1870. Wellesley College in Massachusetts was the first school to organize a competitive rowing team for women in the late 19th century. The 19th Century English rower Ann Glanville achieved national celebrity becoming known as the champion female rower of the world;[7] her all-women crew often winning against the best male teams.[8][9]St Hugh's College, Oxford owned a boat for use by its women students as early as 1891; it was stored at the River Cherwell and students "who can swim 50 feet" were permitted to use it.[10] In 1892, four young women started what became ZLAC Rowing Club in San Diego, California, which is thought today to be the world's oldest continuously existing all-women's rowing club.[11]Newnham College Boat Club was formed the following year in Cambridge, England. In 1927, the first Women's Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge was held. For the first few years it was an exhibition, and it later became a race. Ernestine Bayer, called the "Mother of Women's Rowing", formed the Philadelphia Girls' Rowing Club in 1938.
FISA, under its Swiss president Gaston Mullegg, approved at its ordinary congress on 30 August 1950 that women's rowing event would be added to the European Rowing Championships. There was opposition to women's rowing from the Swiss and Italian rowing associations but the motion was passed. It was decided that the feasibility of holding women's event would be trialled first; in the same way, the introduction of lightweight and junior championships was trialled first before the events became fully accredited. It was also decided at the August 1950 congress that women would compete over a 1000m distance, with no reasons recorded for this decision. The normal distance for men was 2000m and the shorter distance for women would be kept until the 1984 World Rowing Championships when women's rowing changed to 2000m. The 1984 Summer Olympics were the last Olympic Games that used the 1000m distance.[12]
The next FISA congress was held just prior to the 1951 European Rowing Championships where four countries had nominated women: Great Britain, France, Holland and Denmark. The congress decided that "international regattas for women should be held each year under the auspices of FISA, if possible as part of the European championships, either on the day before them or after them, but on no account during the actual championships." Until the hiatus of the European Championships in 1973, the event for women was always held before the event for men, and in two years, the women's championships were held in different locations: in 1955 (when the men met in Ghent and the women met in Bucharest) and in 1963 (when the men met in Copenhagen and the women met in Moscow). There were no European Rowing Championships in 1952 as the men did not compete in Europe when the Summer Olympics were held in Europe that year, and the same four countries sent women to a regatta in Amsterdam. At the 1953 European Rowing Championships, the four initial countries were joined by Norway, Finland, Austria, West Germany, and Poland.[12]
But even before the 1953 European Rowing Championships had been held, FISA decided at an extraordinary congress in May 1953 that the women's events would formally become part of the European Rowing Championships starting with the 1954 European Rowing Championships.[12]
In 1988, the first Henley Women's Regatta was held. Henley Royal Regatta first included a women's singles event over the full course in 1993, followed in 2000 by eights (now Remenham Challenge Cup) and 2001 by quadruple sculls (now Princess Grace Challenge Cup). In 1997 one of the last bastions of rowing was breached when the Leander Club, one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world, voted to admit women as members. This rule met a condition imposed by UK Sport and qualified Leander to receive a £1.5 million grant for refurbishment from the Lottery Sports Fund.[13] The club was opened to women in 1998 and appointed Olympic medallist, Debbie Flood, as its captain in 2012.[14]
At the international level, women's rowing traditionally has been dominated by Eastern European countries, such as Romania, Russia, and Bulgaria, although other countries such as Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and New Zealand often field competitive teams.[6][15]
The United States also has had very competitive crews, and in recent years these crews have become even more competitive given the surge in women's collegiate rowing due to Title IX. Because Title IX mandates equal money spent on men's and women's sports, rowing is particularly useful due to the extremely high costs of equipment per athlete. Therefore, many schools open a rowing program only to women to financially counteract the prevalence of men's sports.[16] As a result, many women's college rowers have not previously competed at high school or for a club team.[17] In the United States, it is important to note that Women's Rowing is an NCAA sport, while Men's Rowing chooses to remain governed by its own regulatory body, the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA). The IRA, formed in 1895, preceded the NCAA by at least ten years and provided a guideline for the rules of eligibility and sportsmanship later adopted by the NCAA when it was formed.
Rowing, sometimes called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using oarlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is divided into two disciplines: sculling and sweep rowing. In sculling, each rower holds two oars—one in each hand, while in sweep rowing each rower holds one oar with both hands. There are several boat classes in which athletes may compete, ranging from single sculls, occupied by one person, to shells with eight rowers and a coxswain, called eights. There are a wide variety of course types and formats of racing, but most elite and championship level racing is conducted on calm water courses 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long with several lanes marked using buoys.
World Rowing, also known as the World Rowing Federation, is the international governing body for rowing. Its current president is Jean-Christophe Rolland who succeeded Denis Oswald at a ceremony held in Lucerne in July 2014.
The World Rowing Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA. It is a week-long event held at the end of the northern hemisphere summer and in non-Olympic years is the highlight of the international rowing calendar.
The European Rowing Championships is an international Rowing regatta organised by FISA for European rowing nations, plus Israel which, though not a member of the European federation is treated as a European nation for competition purposes.
Rowing has been part of the Summer Olympics since its debut in the 1900 Games. Rowing was on the program at the 1896 Summer Olympics but was cancelled due to bad weather. Only men were allowed to compete until the women's events were introduced at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal which gave national federations the incentive to support women's events and catalysed growth in women's rowing. Lightweight rowing events were introduced to the games in 1996. Qualifying for the rowing events is under the jurisdiction of the World Rowing Federation. World Rowing predates the modern Olympics and was the first international sport federation to join the modern Olympic movement.
Rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport in the United States. The first intercollegiate race was a contest between Yale and Harvard in 1852. In the 2018–19 school year, there were 2,340 male and 7,294 female collegiate rowers in Divisions I, II and III, according to the NCAA. The sport has grown since the first NCAA statistics were compiled for the 1981–82 school year, which reflected 2,053 male and 1,187 female collegiate rowers in the three divisions. Some concern has been raised that some recent female numbers are inflated by non-competing novices.
Lightweight rowing is a category of rowing where limits are placed on the maximum body weight of competitors. According to the International Rowing Federation (FISA), this weight category was introduced "to encourage more universality in the sport especially among nations with less statuesque people".
Rowing New Zealand is the sports governing body for rowing in New Zealand. Its purpose is to provide leadership and support to enable an environment of success for the New Zealand rowing community. This includes secondary schools, clubs, masters, universities and high performance.
The history of rowing as a sport has prevailed it as one of the oldest traditions in the world. What began as a method of transport and warfare eventually became a sport with a wide following, and a part of the cultural identity of the English speaking world. Rowing in its modern form developed in England in the 1700s.
Durham University Boat Club (DUBC) is the rowing club of Durham University. In recent years, DUBC has cemented itself as one of the strongest university boat clubs in Great Britain. Under the leadership of former British Olympian Wade Hall-Craggs, DUBC notably won the BUCS Victor Ludorum for ten consecutive years (2004-2013), and has produced a number of athletes that have competed internationally at European and World Championship level.
Caryn Davies is an American rower. She is the winner of the 2023 Thomas Keller Medal, the most prestigious international award in the sport of rowing, and the only American to have ever won this award. She won gold medals as the stroke seat of the U.S. women's eight at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics. In April 2015 Davies stroked Oxford University to victory in the first ever women's Oxford/Cambridge boat race held on the same stretch of the river Thames in London where the men's Oxford/Cambridge race has been held since 1829. She was the most highly decorated Olympian to take part in either [men's or women's] race. In 2012 Davies was ranked number 4 in the world by the International Rowing Federation. At the 2004 Olympic Games she won a silver medal in the women's eight. Davies has won more Olympic medals than any other U.S. oarswoman. The 2008 U.S. women's eight, of which she was a part, was named FISA crew of the year. Davies is from Ithaca, New York, where she graduated from Ithaca High School, and rowed with the Cascadilla Boat Club. Davies was on the Radcliffe College (Harvard) Crew Team and was a member on Radcliffe's 2003 NCAA champion Varsity 8, and overall team champion. In 2013, she was a visiting student at Pembroke College, Oxford, where she stroked the college men's eight to a victory in both Torpids and the Oxford University Summer Eights races. In 2013–14 Davies took up Polynesian outrigger canoeing in Hawaii, winning the State novice championship and placing 4th in the long-distance race na-wahine-o-ke-kai with her team from the Outrigger Canoe Club. In 2013, she was inducted into the New York Athletic Club Hall of Fame and in 2022 into the Harvard University Athletics Hall of Fame.
A coxless four, abbreviated as a 4- and also called a straight four, is a racing shell used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four persons who propel the boat with sweep oars, without a coxswain.
Rowing Ireland, formerly the Irish Amateur Rowing Union, is the governing body of rowing for Ireland. It is a cross-border organisation administering the sport in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The 1953 European Rowing Championships were rowing championships held on Lake Bagsværd near the Danish capital Copenhagen. Men competed in all seven Olympic boat classes. The regatta was also the third test event for international women's rowing organised by the International Rowing Federation (FISA), with nine countries competing in four boat classes over the shorter race distance of 1,000 m. The purpose of the test event was to see whether women's rowing should formally become part of the FISA-organised European Rowing Championships.
The 1951 European Rowing Championships were rowing championships held on the Mâcon regatta course on the Saône in Mâcon, France. Men competed in all seven Olympic boat classes. The regatta is notable as the first test event for international women's rowing organised by the International Rowing Federation (FISA), with four countries competing in four boat classes over the shorter race distance of 1,000 m. The purpose of the test event was to see whether women's rowing should formally become part of the FISA-organised European Rowing Championships.
Thomas Ford is a British national representative rower. He is a two-time world champion and an Olympic bronze medallist.
James Rudkin is a British national representative rower. He is a two-time world champion and an Olympic bronze medallist.
Sholto Carnegie is a British representative rower. He is an Olympian and a two-time world champion in the Great Britain men's eight.
References
↑ "Rowing". World Rowing. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
↑ Schweinbenz, Amanda (2014). Against Hegemonic Currents: Women's Rowing in the First Half of the Twentieth Century. Routledge. pp.124–125. ISBN9781317985235.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
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