Rowing at the 1984 Summer Olympics – Women's double sculls

Women's double sculls at the Games of the XXIII Olympiad
Date	30 July – 4 August 1984
Competitors	16 from 8 nations
Medalists
Marioara Popescu Elisabeta Lipă   Romania Greet Hellemans Nicolette Hellemans   Netherlands Daniele Laumann Silken Laumann   Canada
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The women's double sculls competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics took place at took place at Lake Casitas, California, United States of America. ^[1] The event was won by Romanians Marioara Popescu and Elisabeta Lipă (then Elisabeta Oleniuc); it was the first of Lipă's 5 Olympic gold medals (and 8 total Olympic medals). ^[1]

Competition format

The competition consisted of two main rounds (heats and finals) as well as a repechage. The 8 competitors were divided into two heats for the first round, with 4 boats in each heat. The winner of each heat advanced directly to the "A" final (1st through 6th place). The remaining 6 rowers were placed in the repechage. A single heat was held in the repechage. The top four boats in the repechage went to the "A" final. The remaining 2 boats (5th and 6th placers in the repechage) competed in the "B" final for 7th and 8th place. ^[2]

All races were over a 1000 metre course.

Results

Heats

The heats were held on July 30. The winner of each advanced to the A final, with all others going to the repechage. No boats were eliminated in this round.

Heat 1

The first heat featured all three of the eventual medalists. The race was held during calm winds. The Romanian pair led by over 2 seconds at the halfway mark, holding to that lead over the second half of the race. The British boat was only half a second behind the Dutch team after 500 metres before falling back to 9 seconds out of third place at the end. ^[3]

Rank	Rower	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Elisabeta Lipă Marioara Popescu	Romania	3:24.28	QA
2	Daniele Laumann Silken Laumann	Canada	3:26.72	R
3	Greet Hellemans Nicolette Hellemans	Netherlands	3:28.67	R
4	Sally Bloomfield Nonie Ray	Great Britain	3:37.72	R

Heat 2

The race was held during calm winds. At the halfway mark, the Norwegians held a 1.33 second lead over the Swedes. The Austrians and Americans were further back, with Austria holding a very slight lead for third place. Over the second half of the course, the Swedes pulled closer but were unable to catch the Norwegians. The Austrians fell back to fourth place, finishing nearly 6 seconds after the Americans. ^[4]

Rank	Rower	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Solfrid Johansen Haldis Lenes	Norway	3:27.87	QA
2	Marie Carlsson Carina Gustavsson	Sweden	3:28.41	R
3	Judy Geer Cathy Thaxton-Tippett	United States	3:30.91	R
4	Inge Niedermayer Vera Sommerbauer	Austria	3:36.62	R

Repechage

The repechage was held on August 1. The race was held during calm winds. The temperature was significantly cooler than during the heats (16 °C vs. 27 °C). By the halfway mark, the boats had separated into two groups, with the Canadians leading the Dutch and Swedes in the lead group while the Americans led the Brits and Austrians in the second group. The results of the second group were more important, as the top 4 boats advanced to the main final; the Americans pulled closer to the lead group while the British and Austrian boats fell further behind. The Dutch pair had the best second-half, taking the lead while the Canadians fell from first to third. ^[4]

Rank	Rower	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Greet Hellemans Nicolette Hellemans	Netherlands	3:28.67	QA
2	Marie Carlsson Carina Gustavsson	Sweden	3:28.41	QA
3	Daniele Laumann Silken Laumann	Canada	3:26.72	QA
4	Judy Geer Cathy Thaxton-Tippett	United States	3:30.91	QA
5	Inge Niedermayer Vera Sommerbauer	Austria	3:36.62	QB
6	Sally Bloomfield Nonie Ray	Great Britain	3:37.72	QB

Finals

Final B

The "B" final was held on August 3. It featured the last two boats from the repechage, facing off for 7th and 8th place. There was an east-northeast wind at 1.2 m/s, and the weather was warmer again (23 °C). The British boat led by half a second at the halfway mark, but the Austrians had a strong second half to win by nearly 4 seconds. ^[4]

Rank	Rower	Nation	Time
7	Inge Niedermayer Vera Sommerbauer	Austria	3:36.20
8	Sally Bloomfield Nonie Ray	Great Britain	3:40.08

Final A

The "A" final was held on August 4, with calm winds but cooler temperatures (18 °C). The Romanians established a 1-second lead by halfway, increasing to a final margin of victory of nearly 2.4 seconds. The next three boats were closer than that but still relatively separated, with the Canadians taking bronze at 0.7 seconds behind the Dutch silver medalists and the Swedes in fourth at 1 second after that. The Norwegian boat, despite winning its heat, found itself in a tight race for 5th and 6th place against the Americans, beating them by only a quarter-second. ^[4]

Rank	Rower	Nation	Time
	Elisabeta Lipă Marioara Popescu	Romania	3:26.75
	Greet Hellemans Nicolette Hellemans	Netherlands	3:29.13
	Daniele Laumann Silken Laumann	Canada	3:29.82
4	Marie Carlsson Carina Gustavsson	Sweden	3:30.79
5	Solfrid Johansen Haldis Lenes	Norway	3:32.09
6	Judy Geer Cathy Thaxton-Tippett	United States	3:32.33

Final classification

Rank	Rowers	Country
	Marioara Popescu Elisabeta Lipă	Romania
	Greet Hellemans Nicolette Hellemans	Netherlands
	Daniele Laumann Silken Laumann	Canada
4	Carina Gustavsson Marie Carlsson	Sweden
5	Haldis Lenes Solfrid Johansen	Norway
6	Cathy Thaxton-Tippett Judy Geer	United States
7	Inge Niedermayer Vera Sommerbauer	Austria
8	Nonie Ray Sally Bloomfield	Great Britain

References

1. "Rowing at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games: Women's Double Sculls". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
2. Official Report, vol. 2, pp. 520–21.
3. Official Report, vol. 2, p. 520.
4. Official Report, vol. 2, p. 521.