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Rowing Facts

Rowing Facts
Rowing dates back to the Egyptian times, but as a competitive sport its origins date back to the early 1700s when races were held on the River Thames in London, England. Rowing, or 'crew' as it is often referred to in the United States, is a sport in which a boat is propelled on the water by the use of oars. Rowing today is either for sport or competitive purposes. There are two forms of rowing = sweep or sweep-oar rowing and sculling. When sweep oaring, each rower has one oar and this form is usually done in pairs, fours and eights. When sculling, each rower has two oars and this form is usually done in in quads, doubles or in singles.
Interesting Rowing Facts:
In the modern Olympics, rowing was one of the original sports.
The founder of the modern Olympics Baron Pierre de Coubertin was a rower.
The first intercollegiate sport in the United States was rowing and the first competitive race was held in 1852 between Yale and Harvard.
The first rowing club in the United States was founded in 1839. It was called the Detroit Boat Club.
Rowers are generally in superb physical condition.
For 36 years, from 1920 until 1956, the United States won the gold medal in men's rowing in the Olympics.
The famous baby doctor and author Dr. Benjamin Spock won a gold medal in 1924 in the men's eight Olympics for rowing.
The first national governing body for a sport in the United States was the National Association for Amateur Oarsmen, founded in 1872. In 1982 they changed their name to the United States Rowing Association.
In rowing boats the long thin boats they use are called shells.
The coxswain is the in-the-boat coach responsible for carrying out the training or race plan, and he or she is also responsible for motivating the rowers and calling out information. They are usually petite individuals, but if they are too petite they must carry sandbags to bring them up to minimum weight.
The rigger on the shell is the name of the apparatus sticking out at each seat that keeps the oar in place.
The world's largest annual regatta is Head of the Charles.
The biggest spring season regatta is the Stotesbury Regatta in Philadelphia.
The biggest crew regatta in North America is the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta held each summer in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
The most difficult and most important seat in the boat is the stroke, as the person sitting there is responsible for setting the tempo and determining the speed of strokes.
The middle seats are usually reserved for the strongest and largest rowers in the boat to improve the boat's balance.
The usual distance for a race is 2000 meters, although some high school sprints are only 1500 meters.
Shells with eight oars are usually 60 feet long.
Single shells are usually 27 feet long and are often only 10 inches wide.
In competitive rowing there are usually two weight classes, lightweight and heavyweight.


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