Eights, Men

The greatest eight in the world in 1908 was considered to be the Belgian crew representing the Royal Club Nautique de Gand. They had won the European championship from 1906-1908 and a Belgian eight had won that title every year from 1897-1910 with the exception of 1905 and 1909. At Henley, the Royal Club Nautique de Gand won the Grand Challenge Cup (for eights) in 1906-07 and 1909. Leander Club had an eight win the Grand Challenge Cup in 1903-05, while the 1908 title went to an Oxford crew representing the Christ Church College Boat Club. The top American eight was the team from Vesper Boat Club in Philadelphia, which had won the Olympic championship in 1900 and 1904, but Vesper did not enter the 1908 Olympic rowing regatta.

The two favored crews came through to the final, although both had reasonable competition in the early rounds. Leander went out at 42 strokes and Gand at 43 strokes. Leander went ahead by -length as they passed Temple Island. Shortly after one mile, Gand pulled even and may have even led briefly but it was a futile effort which exhausted them. Leander pulled away easily after passing Phyllis Court and won by 2 lengths. All the members of the Leander crew had rowed for Oxford or Cambridge.

The silver and bronze medalists listed below are controversial. It seems likely that only gold medals, and no silver or bronze medals, were given. The rules, as given in the 1908 Official Report (p. 528), note, “The Winners or Winner of the events will each receive the British Olympic Council’s Gold Medal for the Olympic Games of 1908.” And on another page of the 1908 Official Report (p. 37), one finds under Rowing, “Prizes: - Gold Olympic Medals to the winners in each Event.” There is no mention of silver or bronze medals in either place. In the results section of the 1908 Official Report (p. 358). the four rowing events are listed, with only the winners listed under gold medals. No silver or bronze medal placements are listed.

Because of the set-up of the Henley course, only two crews or sculls competed at any one time. Thus the semi-finals and finals consisted of only two crews or single scullers. Certainly the losing finalist would seem to be considered the “silver medalist” although we do not know if those rowers actually received such a medal. In addition, it would seem natural, and consistent with other Olympic sports with head-to-head formats, such as boxing and tennis, to consider the losing semi-finalists as “bronze medalists.”

Olympic statisticians vary on the listing of these results. Erich Kamper, in Encyclopaedia of the Olympic Games, listed the losing semi-finalists in the single sculls and eights as finishing third, but he did not list the losing semi-finalists that way in the coxed pairs or coxed fours. Both Volker Kluge (Die Olympischen Spiele von 1896 bis 1980) and David Wallechinsky (The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics) consider all the losing semi-finalists as finishing in 3rd place. But in his more recent book, Olympische Sommerspiele: Die Chronik I, Kluge did not describe the losing semi-finalists as bronze medalists.

However, in keeping with our Guidelines (see Updates–>Guidelines), we have considered the losing finalists as silver medalists (2nd place) and both the losing semi-finalists as bronze medalists (3rd place). In those guidelines we note, “we consider all participants being placed first, second or third in the final standings to have received gold, silver or bronze medals respectively.”