Rowing at the 2000 Summer Olympics

Rowing at the 2000 Summer Olympics was held at the Sydney International Regatta Centre, a venue built specifically for the Games. Increased efforts to draw in more countries to all events in the Olympics helped rowing set a new participation record of 51 nations. The men’s single sculls saw three new nations: Kazakhstan through Vladimir Belonogov, Tunisia through Riadh Ben Khedher, and Pakistan through Muhammad Akram. Tunisia also sent Ibtissem Trimèch to the women’s single sculls, while Pakistan was also represented by Zahid Ali Pirzada and Hazrat Islam in the lightweight double sculls. Phuttharaksa Nikree, meanwhile, made her first of three (as of 2012) appearances as Thailand’s only representative in rowing. India sent Kasam Khan and Inderpal Singh to debut in the men’s coxless pairs, while the new entity of Serbia and Montenegro (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) appeared for the first time in the men’s coxless pairs and fours.

Romania won three medals, all of them gold, to top the table in 2000, but the results were fairly evenly spread out, with France, Great Britain, and Germany all taking two titles, the latter of whom won six medals overall. Australia, meanwhile, took five medals without winning a single event. Both Lithuania, in the women’s double sculls, and Croatia, in the men’s coxed eights, won their first medals as independent nations with third-place finishes, while Slovenia won its first Olympic rowing title in the men’s double sculls (and one of its first two gold medals ever, along with Rajmond Debevec’s victory in the rifle, three positions at 50 metres). Great Britain, meanwhile, won the men’s coxed eights for the first time since 1912.

The 2000 program remained the same from the 1996 edition, which is, as of 2012, its current state. There were two sets of multiple medalists: Pieta van Dishoeck and Eeke van Nes were runners-up in the women’s double sculls and coxed eights, while Romania’s Georgeta Damian and Doina Ignat became champions in the women’s coxless pairs and coxed eights. Another notable champion was Great Britain’s Steven Redgrave, who capped off a legendary career by winning the coxless fours for his fifth Olympic title (and sixth Olympic medal overall), his first having come in the coxed fours at the 1984 Games. He was, at the time, the oldest rower to win Olympic gold (Australia’s James Tomkins and Romania’s Elisabeta Lipă would surpass him in 2004) and remains the only rower to have captured a title at five consecutive Olympics.