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.
Michiel Bernhard Emiel Marie Bartman is a former rower from the Netherlands, who won a total of three Olympic medals during his career. A member of the Nereus Rowing Club from Amsterdam, he won the gold medal in Atlanta with the Holland Acht, followed by silver in Sydney and silver (Eights) once again in Athens. He also won three medals at the World Championships, bronze in the coxed four in 1994, silver with the Holland Acht in 1995 and silver in the Quadruple Sculls in 2001. Notably the Netherlands eight set the world record in the men's eight in Atlanta that stood until 2002. Bartman's earned notoriety within the international rowing community as a fierce competitor with a rare ability to time his best performances for the Olympic Games.
Michelle Denise Darvill is a retired rower. Born in Toronto, she first competed for Canada, but later change allegiance to Germany. She was world champion in three different lightweight boat classes, once for Canada and twice for Germany, and represented Germany at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Since 2009, she has been coaching the Canadian under 23 women's team.
Mark John Hunter MBE is a retired British rower.
The 2015 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 30 August to 6 September 2015 at the Lac d'Aiguebelette, Aiguebelette-le-Lac in France.
Inge Janssen is a Dutch rower. A world champion in the women's four, she was part of the Dutch quadruple sculls that won silver at the 2016 Olympics and competed in the double sculls at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Imogen Walsh is a British rower, a former World and European Champion in Lightweight Women's Single Scull.
The 2016 World Rowing Championships was the 46th edition and held from 21 to 28 August 2016 at the Willem-Alexander Baan in Rotterdam, Netherlands in conjunction with the World Junior Rowing Championships and the World Rowing U23 Championships. The annual week-long rowing regatta is organized by FISA, and held at the end of the northern hemisphere summer. Because the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2016 Summer Paralympics were the major rowing events in 2016, the World Championships programme was limited to non-Olympic events, non-Paralympic events, and the World Rowing Junior Championships were held at the same time, and also the World Rowing U23 Championships.
Zoe McBride is a former New Zealand rower. She is a double world champion in the women's lightweight single scull. She is only the second New Zealand rower to win a double national championship in both the lightweight and premier single sculls.
Ursula Grobler is a South African competitive rower who resides in Pretoria, South Africa.
Ilse Paulis is a Dutch representative rower. She is a world champion, a dual Olympian, an Olympic gold medallist and has set three world's best times, two of which are standing world records as of 2021. She is racing the lightweight women's double scull with Marieke Keijser at Tokyo 2021.
Brianna Stubbs is an elite British rower and research scientist who won two gold medals for Great Britain at the 2013 U23 and 2016 World Rowing Championships. She was the youngest person to row across the English Channel when she completed the feat in 2004, at the age of 12. Her research is focussed on the metabolism of ketone drinks, and has been based at Oxford University. In 2014, she was included in the BBC's 100 Women.
Emily Craig is a British lightweight Olympic champion and three-time world champion rower.
The women's lightweight quadruple sculls competition at the 2017 World Rowing Championships in Sarasota took place in Nathan Benderson Park.
Eleanor "Ellie" Piggott is an English rower, who won a gold medal as part of the Great Britain rowing squad at the 2016 World Rowing Championships, in the Women's Quad sculls event.
Angeliki Gremou is a Greek rower. She competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 2000 Summer Olympics. She also competed in the 1998 World Rowing Championships winning a bronze medal in the lightweight women's quadruple sculls and the 2003 World Rowing Championships also winning a bronze medal in the lightweight women's double sculls alongside Elpida Grigoriadou.
The women's lightweight quadruple sculls competition at the 2018 World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv took place at the Plovdiv Regatta Venue.
Karolien Florijn is a Dutch rower. She was a member of the Dutch coxless four, along with Ellen Hogerwerf, Ymkje Clevering and Veronique Meester, that won an Olympic silver medal in Tokyo 2020. The same crew was a three-time European Champion and won a silver medal at the 2019 World Rowing Championships. Florijn returned to the single sculls in 2022, winning the overall World Rowing Cup trophy and winning the gold medal at the European Championships in Munich. She won the single sculls event at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games.
Michelle Sechser is an American rower. She competed in the women's lightweight double sculls event at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She is set to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the women's lightweight double sculls event.
