Portal:Rowing (sport)
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Introduction
Rowing, often referred to as crew in the United States, is a sport whose origins reach back to Ancient Egyptian times. It involves propelling a boat (racing shell) on water using oars. By pushing against the water with an oar, a force is generated to move the boat. The sport can be either recreational for enjoyment or fitness, or competitive, when athletes race against each other in boats. There are a number of different boat classes in which athletes compete, ranging from an individual shell (called a single scull) to an eight-person shell with coxswain (called a coxed eight).
Modern rowing as a competitive sport can be traced to the early 10th century when races were held between professional watermen on the River Thames in London, United Kingdom. Often prizes were offered by the London Guilds and Livery Companies. Amateur competition began towards the end of the 18th century with the arrival of "boat clubs" at the British public schools of Eton College, Shrewsbury School, and Westminster School. Similarly, clubs were formed at the University of Oxford, with a race held between Brasenose College and Jesus College in 1815. At the University of Cambridge the first recorded races were in 1827. Public rowing clubs were beginning at the same time; in England Leander Club was founded in 1818, in Germany Der Hamburger und Germania Ruder Club was founded in 1836 and in the United States Narragansett Boat Club was founded in 1838 and Detroit Boat Club was founded in 1839. In 1843, the first American college rowing club was formed at Yale University.
Selected general articles
- The Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) governs intercollegiate rowing between varsity rowing programs across the United States. It is the direct successor to the Rowing Association of American Colleges, the first collegiate athletic organization in the United States, which operated from 1870–1894.
The IRA was founded by Cornell, Columbia, and Penn in 1894 and its first annual regatta was hosted on June 24, 1895. Today Navy and Syracuse are also part of the association. Each year these five schools choose whom to invite to the IRA National Championship Regatta and are responsible for its organization. Read more... - Welsh Rowing (formally known as the Welsh Amateur Rowing Association) (Welsh: Rhwyfo Cymru) is the governing body for the sport of rowing in Wales. It is responsible for promoting the sport in Wales, choosing crews to send to the Home Countries International Regatta and the Commonwealth Rowing Championships as well as progressing talented Welsh rowers along relevant pathways into the Great Britain trials and squads. It has 16 affiliated clubs, including schools and universities.
Welsh Rowing is based at the Channel View Leisure Centre in Grangetown, Cardiff. This is also where the Welsh High Performance Squad train. Read more...
The Canadian Secondary School Rowing Association (CSSRA) is an organization which governs high school rowing in Canada. The CSSRA has hosted the main high school rowing event, known as the CSSRA Championships (also known as "Schoolboy") since 1945. Schoolboy is held annually the first weekend of June (Friday through Sunday) in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta course. The event is open to high schools around North America. The event is the largest high school regatta in Ontario, as well as Canada, and possibly North America. Evidence of this is that crews have been coming from as far as British Columbia (Canada), as well as the United States, and even Mexico. Each race is over the 2000 metre course, the same as is used in the World Championships and the Olympics, but unlike the 3 to 8 km head races usually raced in the autumn. Heats are held on Friday, semi-finals on Saturday and finals on Sunday. Read more...
In watercraft, a racing shell (also referred to as just a fine boat (UK) or just shell) is an extremely narrow, and often comparatively long, rowing boat specifically designed for racing or exercise. It is outfitted with long oars, outriggers to hold the oarlocks away from the boat, and sliding seats. The boat's long length and semicircular cross-section reduce drag to a minimum. This makes the boat both fast and unstable. It must be balanced by the rowers to avoid tipping. Being able to balance – or "set" – the boat while putting maximum effort into the oars is therefore an essential skill of sport rowing. Read more...- Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the three other regattas rowed over approximately the same course, Henley Women's Regatta, Henley Masters Regatta and Henley Town and Visitors' Regatta, each of which is an entirely separate event.
The regatta lasts for five days (Wednesday to Sunday) ending on the first weekend in July. Races are head-to-head knock out competitions, raced over a course of 1 mile, 550 yards (2,112 m). The regatta regularly attracts international crews to race. The most prestigious event at the regatta is the Grand Challenge Cup for Men's Eights, which has been awarded since the regatta was first staged. Read more... - This list of rowing venues contains the rowing sites, that allow for international rowing regattas (2,000 m), as described by FISA. Most of these sites have hosted an Olympic or world championship regatta. Read more...
- Rowing New Zealand is the sports governing body for rowing in New Zealand. Its purpose is to provide leadership and support to enable an environment of success for the New Zealand rowing community. This includes secondary schools, clubs, masters, universities and high performance.
Rowing New Zealand was founded as the New Zealand Amateur Rowing Association on 16 March 1887. The New Zealand Amateur Rowing Association was formed by nine clubs in an effort to coordinate and regulate the sport of amateur rowing in New Zealand. Read more... - Harvard men's eight at Henley, 2004
Rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport in the United States. In the 2002–03 school year there were 1,712 male and 6,690 female collegiate rowers, representing just over 2% of total college athletes.
Women's college rowing is sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), whereas men's is not. Read more...
Sculling oars for competitive rowing
Sculling is the use of oars to propel a boat by moving the oars through the water on both sides of the craft, or moving a single oar over the stern. By extension, the oars themselves are often referred to as sculls when used in this manner, and the boat itself may be referred to as a scull. Read more...- Eastern Sprints refers to the annual rowing championship for the men's Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC). (Since 1974, the "Women's Eastern Sprints" has been held as the annual championship for the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (EAWRC) league.) Read more...
Sweep or sweep-oar rowing is a type of rowing when a rower has one oar, usually held with both hands. As each rower has only one oar, the rowers have to be paired so that there is an oar on each side of the boat. This is in contrast to sculling when a rower has two oars, one in each hand. In the UK the term is less used as the term rowing generally refers to sweep oar. The term pulling was also used historically.
Sweep or single oar rowing has a long history and was the means of propulsion for Greek triremes and Viking longboats. These boats were wide enough for the pairs of rowers to sit alongside each other. Boats can go faster, the narrower they are, because a smaller cross-sectional area reduces drag and wave drag and gives a sharper angle to the bow. The hulls can be kept narrower by attaching riggers to the gunwales, so that the oarlocks can be placed farther out to carry longer oars. A narrower hull means the rowers cannot sit side by side and so they sit one behind another. The riggers are staggered alternately along the boat so that the forces apply asymmetrically to each side of the boat. This means a sweep oared racing shell has to be stiffer in order to handle the unmatched forces, and so requires more bracing, which means it has to be heavier and slower than an equivalent sculling boat. Read more...
An indoor rower, or rowing machine, is a machine used to simulate the action of watercraft rowing for the purpose of exercise or training for rowing. Indoor rowing has become established as a sport in its own right. The term also refers to a participant in this sport.
Modern indoor rowers are often known as ergometers (colloquially erg or ergo), an ergometer being a device which measures the amount of work performed. The indoor rower is calibrated to measure the amount of energy the rower is using through their use of the equipment. Read more...- The Head of the Hooch Regatta, previously known as the Head of the Chattahoochee Regatta, is a 2-day rowing regatta held annually on the first full (Saturday and Sunday in the same month) weekend in November in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The head race is currently run downstream on a 3.1 miles (5.0 km) course on the Tennessee River. It presently ranks as one of the largest rowing regattas in the United States with over 10,000 rowers and over 2,100 boats entered for the 2014 event. 1,245 boats raced on one day in the 2012 competition, more than any other US regatta on a single day.
The event is currently co-hosted by the Atlanta Rowing Club and the Lookout Rowing Club. The St. Andrews Rowing Club is also a major partner providing assistance with the set up and operation of the regatta. The Hooch organization is 100% volunteers, with no paid staff. Read more... - The Canadian University Rowing Association is the governing body for post-secondary rowing in Canada. Its purpose is to promote participation in rowing through academic and sporting excellence at Canadian Universities. The Canadian University Rowing Championship (CURC) is hosted annually in early November by one of the member institutions. It is a showcase of top Canadian Under 23 and Senior rowing talent where many of the medalist and finalist athletes have represented or will go on to represent Canada internationally. Read more...
- The Stotesbury Cup Regatta, sponsored by the Schuylkill Navy, is the world's oldest and one of the largest high school rowing competitions. It is held annually in mid-May over a two-day period along the Schuylkill River near Boathouse Row in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Competing crews come from schools all over North America, though most hail from the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States.
The regatta has many different events (30 in 2011) in which high school crews compete for various cups and trophies. Events vary by sex, age, weight category, number of rowers, and style of rowing (whether sweeping with one oar per rower or sculling with two oars per rower). The regatta takes its name from the main event, the Men's Senior Eight race, in which crews of eight oarsmen and one coxswain compete for the Stotesbury Cup. The Stotesbury Cup in turn is named for Edward T. Stotesbury of Philadelphia, a prominent partner at J.P. Morgan & Co. and its Philadelphia affiliate, Drexel & Co. The Women's Senior Eights compete for the Robert Engman Trophy. The regatta has been running men's races since 1927; women's events were added in the mid-1970s. Powerhouse schools in men's events include Episcopal Academy, Christian Brothers Academy, St. Augustine Preparatory School, LaSalle High School, Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas, Holy Spirit, Atlantic City High School, St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.), St. Joseph's Prep, Gonzaga College High School, and Roman Catholic High School for Boys. Episcopal Academy, having dominated the Senior and Junior Four division from 2015-2016, made the Grand Final in the Men's Senior Eight in 2017. The same year, Gonzaga College High School was overtaken by Montclair High School for first place in the Men's Senior Eight. Meanwhile, in women's events, National Cathedral School (Washington, D.C.) has won the Senior Eight category twice (2016-2017) and finished second once (2014) in the last four years. Mount Saint Joseph Academy has also emerged in recent years with strong showings in the Lightweight Eight and Senior Eight categories and Bishop Eustace Preparatory School won the Senior Eight category for three consecutive years (2007-2009). Merion Mercy Academy having won Silver in 2016 in the Women's Senior Eight won Gold in both the Women's Senior Four and Lightweight Eight in 2017. Read more... - New Zealand rowers have competed at the Summer Olympics since the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. With 24 Olympic medals including 11 gold medals, it is the country's most successful Olympic sport, closely followed by athletics with also 24 medals including 10 gold medals. Read more...
Rowing at the Summer Paralympics has been part of the competition since the 2008 Summer Paralympics. Rowing as a sport has been part of the Summer Olympics since 1896 Summer Olympics. Rowing at the paralympics is under the jurisdiction of the International Rowing Federation (or FISA, its French acronym) the same as the Olympics. Read more...- The Poughkeepsie Regatta was the annual championship regatta of the U.S. Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) when it was held in Poughkeepsie, New York from 1895 to 1949. Read more...
Championship Course on a flood tide (e.g. for the Boat Race). The Start and Finish are reversed when racing on an ebb tide. "Middlesex" and "Surrey" denote banks of the Thames Tideway, not the actual English counties
The Women's Eights Head of the River Race (WEHoRR) is a processional rowing race held annually on the Tideway of the River Thames in London on the 4 1⁄4-mile (6.8 km) Championship Course from Mortlake to Putney.
A mirror of the Eights Head of the River for male crews, it is held a fortnight earlier when the tides are similar. It is raced on the outgoing tide and starting around one hour after high tide in order to maximise advantage from the tidal flow. Read more...- Scottish Rowing (SR), formerly the Scottish Amateur Rowing Association, is the governing body for the sport of rowing in Scotland. It is responsible for promoting the sport in Scotland and also for selecting crews to send to the Home International Regatta and the Commonwealth Rowing Championships. In addition, Scottish Rowing also runs three of the major regattas of the year, Strathclyde Park Regatta, the Scottish Rowing Championships and the Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships. Read more...
The Dad Vail Regatta is the largest regular intercollegiate rowing event in the United States, drawing over a hundred colleges and universities from North America. The regatta has been held annually on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since 1953.
It was renamed the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta in 2010 for new sponsor Aberdeen Asset Management, a Scottish investment firm whose U.S. operations are headquartered in Center City Philadelphia.
The purposes of the Dad Vail Rowing Association are: "to perpetuate the 'Dad' Vail tradition, foster and encourage intercollegiate rowing among colleges new to the sport, and promote schedules for member schools." Read more...- In competitive rowing, the following specialized terms are important in the corresponding aspects of the sport: Read more...
- The World Rowing Cup is an international rowing competition organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). It first began in 1997 and comprises three regattas (apart from in 2001 when there were four) held throughout early summer. In each event points are awarded to the top seven finishing boats and an overall winner determined after the last world cup regatta each year. During the regattas the current leader in each event must wear yellow bibs. The World Rowing Cup has only been staged outside Europe on 3 occasions, in 2001 Princeton and in both 2013 and 2014 Sydney. Read more...
- Rowing Australia (RA) is the governing body for the sport of rowing in Australia.
Established in 1925, it is the only organisation recognised by the Federation Internationale des Societies d’Aviron (FISA), the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), and the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), to conduct rowing activities in, and on behalf of Australia. Read more... - Lightweight rowing (abbreviated Lwt or Lt) is a category of rowing where limits are placed on the maximum body weight of competitors. One might think the rationale would be that heavier people have a disadvantage but the actual rationale is that larger, taller people have a significant physical advantage and tend to dominate the sport. A lightweight category gives average sized individuals the ability to compete against their peers, but rowers who are tall and thin generally have an advantage over those who are shorter but broader. According to the International Rowing Federation (FISA), this weight category was introduced "to encourage more universality in the sport especially among nations with less statuesque people".
Although lightweight rowing is the counterpart to heavyweight rowing, it is a fairly different sport, relying much more on ideal body composition and technique than raw strength. Read more... - The World Rowing Junior Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). A rower or coxswain shall be classified as a Junior until 31 December of the year in which he reaches the age of 18. After that date, he shall be classified as an Under 23 rower. During Olympic years it is held at the same location as the Senior World Rowing Championships.
The first FISA Youth Regatta was held in 1967 and has been held every year since then, being raised to the status of FISA Junior Champs in 1970 and Junior World Champs in 1985. Read more... - The Maadi Cup is the prize for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Boys' Under 18 Rowing Eights. More colloquially, it is the name given to the New Zealand Secondary Schools Rowing Regatta, at which the Maadi Cup is raced. The regatta is the largest school sports event in the Southern Hemisphere, with over 2100 rowers from 125 secondary schools participating in 2014. The regatta is held annually in late March, alternating between the country's two main rowing venues: Lake Karapiro near Cambridge (odd years), and Lake Ruataniwha near Twizel (even years).
The top prizes at the regatta are the Maadi Cup, Springbok Shield, Levin Jubilee Cup, Dawn Cup and Star Trophy. Read more... - The Henley Boat Races are a series of rowing races between men's and women's lightweight crews representing the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.
The event was founded in 1975 and takes place annually on the River Thames at Henley, usually the week before the University Boat Races. The Henley Boat races take place over a 2000 m course, downstream — the opposite direction to the Henley Royal Regatta course — and finish halfway down Temple Island. Competitors at the events have gone on to compete at international and olympic levels. Read more... - American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) is one of the governing bodies of college rowing in the United States, together with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA). Read more...
- The Head of the River is a name given to annual Australian rowing regattas held in South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia. The regattas feature competing independent schools, and the winner of the 1st division boys or girls race is crowned the "Head of the River".
The name Head of the River is taken from similar regattas held in other countries including the Head of the River Race held annually on the Thames in London since 1926. Read more... - The Asian Rowing Championship is a rowing championship organised by the Asian Rowing Federation for competitors from the Asian countries. Read more...
- The Women's Boat Race is an annual rowing race between Cambridge University Women's Boat Club and Oxford University Women's Boat Club. First rowed in 1927, the race has taken place annually since 1964. Since the 2015 race it has been rowed on the same day and course as the men's Boat Race on the River Thames in London, taking place around Easter. The combined event of two races became known as "The Boat Races", or since 2018 simply "The Boat Race" with a women's and mens' race. It is also known by a title that includes the name of its official charity, '"The Cancer Research UK Boat Race", its sponsor, Newton Investment Management, having donated the title to the charity. The race is rowed in eights and the cox can be of any gender.
The course covers a 4.2 miles (6.8 km) stretch of the Thames in West London, from Putney to Mortlake. Members of both crews are traditionally known as blues and each boat as a "Blue Boat", with Cambridge in light blue and Oxford dark blue. As of 2018 Cambridge have won the race 43 times and Oxford 30 times. Cambridge has led Oxford in cumulative wins since 1966. The women's race has received television coverage and grown in popularity since 2015, attracting a television audience of 4.8 million viewers that year. The 2018 race was won by Cambridge by around seven lengths. Read more... - The Great Race (or Harry Mahon Trophy) is an annual rowing race between the men's eight from the University of Waikato, New Zealand and a prominent university team (or teams) from outside New Zealand. The race is held over a 4.8 kilometre stretch of the Waikato River in Hamilton and is raced upstream. The women race for the Bryan Gould Cup. Read more...
- The Victorian Head of the Schoolgirls regatta is contested between girls at schools from all across the state of Victoria Australia. Schools from the Girls Sport Victoria (GSV) and also Associated Public Schools of Victoria (APS), as well as smaller school rowing groups which enter under a rowing club banner, compete in a range of events over 1000m for the Year 9 and Year 10 events or 1500m for the Open events (typically girls in years 11 and 12).
Whereas in most rowing, coxswains can be of either sex, in the HOSG all coxswains must be female and attend the same school as the rowers of the crew that they are coxing. Read more... - The CRASH-B Sprints is the world championship for indoor rowing, raced over a distance of 2,000 m on Concept2 indoor rowers. It continues to be held every February in Boston, Massachusetts. Recently it has been held at Boston University's Agganis Arena. Previous venues have included the Reggie Lewis Track and Field Center and Harvard's Newell Boathouse. Read more...
- This is an incomplete list of some rowing club colours. Read more...
Women's rowing is the participation of women in the sport of rowing. Women row in all boat classes, from single scull to coxed eights, across the same age ranges and standards as men, from junior amateur through university-level to elite athlete. Typically men and women compete in separate crews although mixed crews and mixed team events also take place. Coaching for women is similar to that for men.
At an international level, the first women's races were introduced at the 1951 European Rowing Championships as test events. After three successful tests, these became official championships as accredited by the International Rowing Federation (FISA) at the 1954 European Rowing Championships. Women's rowing was added to the Olympic Games programme in 1976 at a distance of 1000 metres. This was extended to 2000 metres from 1984 onwards at world championship level, and from 1988 at the Summer Olympics, consistent with men's rowing events at the Olympics. Read more...- British Rowing, formerly the Amateur Rowing Association (ARA), is the governing body for the sport of rowing (both indoor and on-water rowing). It is responsible for the training and selection of individual rowers and crews representing Great Britain and for participation in and the development of rowing and indoor rowing in England. Scottish Rowing (formerly SARA) and Welsh Rowing (formerly WARA) oversee governance in their respective countries, organise their own teams for the Home International Regatta and input to the GB team organisation.
British Rowing is a member of the British Olympic Association and the International Rowing Federation, also known as FISA. Read more... - The National Schools' Regatta is the largest rowing regatta for junior rowers in Great Britain. Held annually in May, the three day regatta offers events for junior rowers between the categories J14 and J18. Read more...
- The Head Of The Fish Regatta is a rowing race held on the last weekend of October each year on Fish Creek, within Saratoga County, New York State. The race is named the "Head" of the Fish because it is a head race.
The event is hosted by the Saratoga Rowing Association. The race is organized by volunteers.
Tom Frost founded the regatta in 1986.
The original vision for the regatta was one "that wouldn't take itself too seriously." Protests were forbidden and "timing errors were considered part of the regatta's charm." Winners are awarded lacquered fish heads. Read more... - The Harvard–Yale Regatta or Yale-Harvard Boat Race (often abbreviated The Race) is an annual rowing race between the men's heavyweight rowing crews of Harvard University and Yale University. First contested in 1852, it has been held annually since 1859 except during major wars fought by the United States. The Race is America's oldest collegiate athletic competition, pre-dating The Game by 23 years. It is sometimes referred to as the "Yale-Harvard" regatta, though most official regatta programs brand it "Harvard-Yale."
Originally rowed on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, it has since moved to the Thames River, near New London, Connecticut. Although other locations for the race have included the Connecticut River at Springfield, Massachusetts, and Lake Quinsigamond at Worcester, Massachusetts, the Thames has hosted The Race on all but five occasions since 1878 and both teams have erected permanent training camps on the Thames at Gales Ferry for Yale and at Red Top for Harvard. Read more... - The Australian Rowing Championships is an annual rowing event that determines Australia's national rowing champions and facilitates selection of Australian representative crews for World Championships and the Olympic Games. It is Australia's premier regatta, with states, clubs and schools sending their best crews. The Championships commence with the National Regatta - men's, women's and lightweight events in open, under 23, under 19, under 17 and school age categories. Rowers at the National Regatta race in their local club colours with composite crews permitted. The Championships conclude with the Interstate Regatta - currently eight events competed by state representative crews or scullers selected by the state rowing associations. The states compete for an overall points tally which decides the Zurich Cup. Read more...
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Selected images
A row of Concept2 "Model C" ergometers
Rowers in a coxed eight (8+), a sweep rowing boat
Racing shells stored in a boathouse.
A coxswain (far right) sitting in the stern of the boat, facing the rowers, at the Head of the Charles Regatta.
Eight classes of racing boats, six of which are part of the Summer Olympic Games.
Lea Rowing Club, a local club on the Lea Navigation in London.
Philadelphia's iconic Boathouse Row, Home of the Schuylkill Navy
Two crews racing in the annual Lagan Head of the River, Belfast. The closer boat is being overtaken by the boat on the far side.
Rowing at the Olympic Games on an East German Stamp for the 1980 Olympic Games
The finish of the Doggett's Coat and Badge. Painting by Thomas Rowlandson.
A side by side race at the 2012 Olympic Games - Men's lightweight coxless four
Subcategories
Topics
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| Canadian rowing | ||
| New Zealand rowing | ||
| UK rowing | ||
| US rowing |
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| FISA events | ||
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