Quadruple Sculls, Men

The quadruple sculls was being held for only the third time at the 1984 Summer Olympics and every previous medal had gone to a nation that was part of the Soviet-led boycott. In fact, out of 24 World Championship medals in the event, only eight had been won by nations who attended the Games. The most recent World Champions, however, were the West Germans, who sent the victorious crew, Albert Hedderich, Raimund Hörmann, Dieter Wiedenmann, and Michael Dürsch, to Los Angeles as the heavy favorites. In both rounds of competition, however, the West Germans had to contend with a strong Australian delegation that consisted of Paul Reedy, Gary Gullock, Tim McLaren, and Tony Lovrich. The Australians won their heat in a time less than a second slower than the West Germans won theirs and, in the final, engaged their European opponents in a fantastic drive to the gold medal, which they lost by only 0.43 seconds. Australia thus settled for silver while Canada, represented by the squad that was fourth at the 1983 World Championships, Doug Hamilton, Mike Hughes, Phil Monckton, and Bruce Ford, took bronze.