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.
Olympia Aldersey is an Australian rower. She is an Australian national champion, a dual Olympian and was a 2019 World Champion in the coxless four. In 2014 she set a world's fastest ever time (6:37.31) in a women's double scull over 2000m, a record which has stood since. She rowed in the Australian women's eight at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Emma Kimberley Twigg is a New Zealand rower. A single sculler, she was the 2014 world champion and won gold in her fourth Olympics in Tokyo in July 2021. Previous Olympic appearances were in 2008, 2012, and 2016. She has retired from rowing twice, first for master-level studies in Europe in 2015 and then after the 2016 Olympics, disappointed at having narrowly missed an Olympic medal for the second time. After two years off the water, she started training again in 2018 and won silver at the 2019 World Rowing Championships. Since her marriage in 2020, she has become an outspoken advocate for LGBT athletes. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Twigg won gold in the woman's single scull.
Sanita Pušpure is a Latvian-born Irish professional rower. She was a back-to-back world champion in the women's single scull winning her title at the 2018 World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv and defending it at the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Ottensheim. She initially competed for Latvia at a junior level, but she moved to Ireland in 2006 and began competing for her adopted country in 2010, before gaining full Irish nationality in 2011. She was selected as the sole rowing competitor for Ireland at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she did not win a medal. In May 2016, she qualified for the Women's single sculls at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Sanita is now head coach of UCC Rowing Club in Cork, Ireland.
Moran Samuel is an Israeli paralympic basketball player and world champion rower. She was chosen to light a ceremonial torch on Israel's Independence Day in 2019. She represented Israel at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Brooke Francis is a New Zealand rower. She has twice won the world championship in the double scull alongside Olivia Loe, is the incumbent world champion, and won a silver medal in this boat class at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with her new rowing partner, Hannah Osborne. As of 2021, she has won ten premier national rowing championships.
Georgia Nesbitt is an Australian former representative lightweight rower who made 10 representative appearaances for Australia between 2013 and 2022. She was an seven-time national champion and she won a silver medal at the 2017 World Rowing Championships. In 2022 prior to a serious cycling accident, she competed in Australian Road National championships and had qualified to participate in her age group at the 2023 Ironman World Championships in Helsinki.
The men's single sculls event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place from 23 to 30 July 2021 at the Sea Forest Waterway. 32 rowers from 32 nations competed.
The women's single sculls event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place from 23 to 30 July 2021 at the Sea Forest Waterway. 32 rowers from 32 nations competed.
The women's quadruple sculls event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place from 23 to 28 July 2021 at the Sea Forest Waterway. 40 rowers from 10 nations competed.
The Philippines competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the nation's official debut in 1924, Filipino athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games except the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow because of the nation's partial support for the US-led boycott.
Singapore competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the nation's seventeenth appearance at the Summer Olympics since its debut at the 1948 Games. In addition, Singapore was part of the Malaysian team at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but did not attend at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, because of its support for the United States boycott. The opening ceremony flag-bearers for Singapore are table tennis player Yu Mengyu and shuttler Loh Kean Yew. Diver Jonathan Chan is the flag-bearer for the closing ceremony.
Nicaragua competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the nation's fourteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics, having competed at every Games since 1968 with the exception of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul because of its partial support of the North Korean boycott.
Cris Marasigan Nievarez is a Filipino rower who competes for the Philippines in international rowing competition. He has qualified to compete in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Harriet Hudson is an Australian national representative rower. She is a three-time national senior champion, twice won silver medals at World U23 Championships and is an Olympian. She competed in the Australian women's quad scull at Tokyo 2021 winning a bronze medal.
Ria Thompson is an Australian national representative rower. She is a national senior and underage champion, won a world title at the 2019 World U23 Championships and is an Olympian. She competed in the Australian women's quad scull at Tokyo 2021 and won a bronze medal.
Hannah Osborne is a New Zealand rower. A member of the national squad, she qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics. In a surprise move, she was selected in the double scull alongside Brooke Donoghue, displacing the reigning twice world champion Olivia Loe. Osborne and Donoghue raced to a silver medal in Tokyo.
Tala Abujbara is a Qatari rower. She competed in the women's single sculls event at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
The rowing competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are scheduled to run from 27 July to 3 August at the National Olympic Nautical Stadium of Île-de-France in Vaires-sur-Marne. The number of rowers competing across fourteen gender-based categories at these Games has been reduced from 526 to 502, with an equal distribution between men and women. Despite the slight changes in athlete figures, the rowing program for Paris 2024 remains constant from the previous edition as the competition will feature an equal number of categories for men and women, with seven each.
