A little bit about Rowing (in summary)
Rowing is a sport whose origins reach back to Ancient Egyptian times. Rowing is one of the oldest Olympic sports. Though it was on the programme for the 1896 games, racing did not take place due to bad weather. Male Rowers have competed since the 1900. Women’s rowing was added to the Olympic programme in 1976.
Each year, as well as local nationwide championships, there are a number of International Rowing Championships held including World Rowing Championships, European Rowing Championships along with three World Rowing Cups in which each event earns a number of points for a country towards the World Cup title. Since 2008, rowing has also been competed at the Paralympic Games.
There are several different types of boats used in rowing.
They are classified using:-
- Number of rowers. In all forms of modern competition the number is either 1, 2, 4, or 8.
- Position of coxswain (also referred to as cox). Boats are either coxless (straight), bow-coxed (also called bowloaders), or stern-coxed.
Although sculling and sweep boats are generally identical to each other (except having different riggers), they are referred to using different names:
Sweep: coxless pair (or straight pair) (2-), coxed pair (2+), Coxless four (or straight four) (4-), coxed four (4+), eight (8+) (always coxed)
Sculling: single scull (1x), double scull (2x), triple scull (3x) (very rare), quad (or quadruple) scull (4x), octuple scull (8x) (always coxed, and mainly for juniors and exhibition)
Rowing is often labelled as one of the most physically strenuous of all sports, and it’s not without credence…
In tests designed to mirror the demands of a 2000m race, caloric expenditure has been calculated as 36kcal per minute making it one of the most energy demanding activities ever studied. It’s not surprising then that the aerobic power of elite oarsmen and women is substantial.
In short, Competitive Rowing is an endurance sport and winning comes from hard training.