Coxless Fours, Women

The women’s coxless fours event was held only once, at the 1992 Summer Olympics, although a coxed version had been contested since 1972. This lone appearance was due to the addition of lightweight class events in 1996 that required the elimination of other disciplines. It had begun at the World Championships in 1989 and had been won by East Germany, Romania, and Canada, the latter of whom were also the reigning Pan American champions and sent three of their four World Champions, Kirsten Barnes, Brenda Taylor, and Jessica Monroe, to Barcelona, while the fourth, Jennifer Doey dropped out due to injury and was replaced by Kay Worthington. Unified Germany and Romania sent mostly different lineups, although the former had Gabriele Mehl, a World silver (1990) and bronze (1991) medalist and the latter had Iulia Bobeică, one of the 1990 World Champions. The Americans were also in contention and were represented by two World runners-up, Shelagh Donohoe and [Cindy Eckert(), augmented by Amy Fuller and Carol Feeney.

Despite having to fend off both the United States and Romania, Canada won its opening round heat by a margin of nearly two seconds, while Germany had a slightly more difficult time winning its heat against France. In the final, the gap between Canada and the United States was halved, but the former were the superior crew and took the gold medal, leaving the Americans with silver. Germany, meanwhile, barely staved off a strong challenge from the Chinese squad and captured bronze by a margin of only 0.16 seconds. The Canadian women became double Olympic champions in 1992, as all of them were members of the coxed eights crew that also took gold in Barcelona.