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Rowing is one of the most physically demanding of sports and also one of the most firmly established at the Olympics. One of the many events that originated as a means of transport, the sport has evolved into a multitude of events for both men and women.

Overview

The concept of rowing has ancient roots as it was used for transport purposes in ancient Greece and Rome. It can be traced as a sporting event back to the 17th and early 18th centuries in England and as a competitive sport, there are no Olympic events that go further back than rowing. The world famous University race between Oxford and Cambridge first took place in 1823 and Yale and Harvard competed in 1852. As a sport, the races are divided into scull and sweep oar and have a lightweight and heavyweight division. Sculling is where the rower has an oar in each hand and sweeping is where they just have one oar. Boats can have up to eight rowers and a coxswain in.

Structure

There are 14 medal events in the Olympics with women competing in six of these. The men compete in single, double and quadruple events in the scull events and double, quadruple and a large boat race with eight oarsmen in the sweep races. Women only compete in a double and quadruple sweep race and a coxed eight oarsmen race. The competition is made up of heats with the winner progressing to a semi-final or sometimes straight to a six-boat final. Depending on the number of boats in the race, everyone who does not win their heat will get another chance to progress with a further race.

Qualification

A total of 550 athletes will take part.

Venue

Shunyi Olympic rowing-canoeing park

Sporting Life / Reuters