Rowing, often 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 rowlocks, 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.
Sir Steven Geoffrey Redgrave is a British retired rower who won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000. He has also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals and nine World Rowing Championships golds. He is the most successful male rower in Olympic history, and the only man to have won gold medals at five Olympic Games in an endurance sport.
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.
Susan Marie Nattrass, is a Canadian trap shooter and medical researcher in osteoporosis. She was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Competing at an elite international level from the 1970s through the 2010s, Nattrass has had multiple appearances, in one or both of trap or double trap, at Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships, and Pan American Games. Nattrass is a repeat World Champion and repeat medalist at the Commonwealth Games, World Championships, and Pan American Games. She was the flag bearer for Canada at the 2007 Pan American Games and the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Dame Katherine Jane Grainger is a Scottish former rower and current Chair of UK Sport. She is a 2012 Summer Olympics gold medallist, four-time Olympic silver medallist and six-time World Champion for Great Britain. She served as Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University between 2015 and 2020 and is currently Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.
Darcy Marquardt is a Canadian rower.
Christopher Donald Liwski is a Canadian American rower, a six-time U.S. National Team member, a double world championship medal winner, and a two-time member of the United States Olympic Rowing Team.
Michael A Spracklen, is a British rowing coach who has led teams from Great Britain, United States, Canada to success at the Olympic games and World Rowing Championships, including the early Olympic successes of Steve Redgrave. In 2002 he was named the International Rowing Federation coach of the year.
Romina Stefancic is a Slovenian-Canadian rower. Born in Slovenia, she received Canadian citizenship in 2004, prior to competing in the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Heather Mandoli is a Canadian rower.
Erin Jane Cafaro is an American rower. She competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, where she won a gold medal in the women's eight. At the 2012 London Olympics she won her second consecutive gold medal in the women's eight.
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.
Douglas Turnbull Hamilton is a Canadian Olympic medallist rower.
Kimberley Jean "Kim" Brennan is an Australian retired rower. She is a sixteen-time national champion, two-time World Champion, three-time Olympian and Olympic gold medallist.
The Canadian University Rowing Association is the governing body for post-secondary rowing in Canada. Its purpose is to promote participation in rowing through academic and sporting excellence at Canadian Universities. The Canadian University Rowing Championship (CURC) is hosted annually in early November by one of the member institutions. It is a showcase of top Canadian Under 23 and Senior rowing talent where many of the medalist and finalist athletes have represented or will go on to represent Canada internationally.
Polly Swann is a British rower and a member of the Great Britain Rowing Team. She is a former World and European champion in the women's coxless pairs, having won the 2013 World Rowing Championships at Chungju in Korea, and the 2014 European Rowing Championships at Belgrade, Serbia with her partner Helen Glover. At the 2016 Summer Olympics she won a silver medal in the women's eight.
The rowing competitions at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo took place between 23 and 30 July 2021 at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo Bay. Fourteen medal events were contested by 526 athletes.
Simon Carcagno is an American rower who competed in lightweight rowing. He won a gold medal in the eights at the 2008 World Rowing Championships and placed third in the coxless pairs in 2003. He also won a silver medal in the coxless fours at the 2007 Pan American Games. He represented the United States as an alternate at the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Kendall "Kenny" Chase is an American rower who competes in international level events and has qualified to represent the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She was a five-time World U23 champion and a World Junior silver medalist. She represented the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She is openly a part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Abby Dent is a national team rower from Canada. Dent became a Pan American Games champion when she won gold in the women's eight at the 2023 Pan Am Games in Santiago and also won a silver medal at the games in the coxless pair with Olivia McMurray.
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