Rowing: the way it is

The British women's eight in action in Atlanta 1996

Rowing is one of the few sports where the athletes face backward to race.

There are two different types of rowing, scull and sweep rowing. The way to tell the difference is to look at how many oars a rower is holding.

If they hold two oars, then it is the scull, but if they hold one, that is sweep rowing. So, for example, Steve Redgrave rows with one oar, which makes him a sweep rower.

Single sculls

In the Olympics there are eight men's events and six women's. The men's events are single scull, double scull, lightweight double scull, quadruple scull, coxless pair, coxless four, lightweight coxless four and eight.

Coxless refers to the fact that the crew row without a coxswain to guide them. The women's events are single scull, double scull, lightweight double scull, quadruple scull, coxless pair and eight.

A stroke consists of four components that have to be completed perfectly to propel the boat forward as fast as possible. These are:

Catch - The rower drops the oar into the water coiled forward with their arms at full stretch.

Drive - The legs power the seat back as the rower uncoils, drawing the oar against the water as the legs stretch fully out.

Finish - The rower lifts the oar out of the water and rolls it to a horizontal position so it slices through the air aerodynamically in the final component of the stroke which is;

Recovery - The rower slides forward back into the coiled position, arms outstretched, ready for the catch once more.

The ability to synchronise these strokes as perfectly as possible is the key in achieving maximum speed. If a crew member loses rhythm, even only slightly, it can spell curtains for the whole team and ruin the race.

  Did you know?

Dieticians recommend that top rowers should consume around 6,000 calories a day to maintain their strength.

Rowers who are not rowing well will create a lot of splash around the area where the oar hits the water.

In sweep rowing events, the second rower from the cox is vital. The first rower from the cox is in the stroke seat - they set the pace for the rest to follow.

But if the second rower, whose oar is at the other side, does not match the stroke then the whole of his side will be out of synch with the other side and that is disastrous for any crew.

An eight in action

The more crew members, the faster the boat. A crew of eight will average around 40 to 44 strokes per minute, while a single will manage 36 to 40 at the start of a race.

The field for the final in each event are determined by a series of heats and semi-finals and repechages, which gives losing boats a second-chance to get to the semi-final.

The first three teams in each semi-final move through to the six-lane final, though all this depends upon the number of boats entered into each event.