Rowing at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Dates 21 – 28 July 1996
Medal Events 14

Rowing at the 1996 Summer Olympics was held at the man-made reservoir known as Lake Sidney Lanier in northern Georgia. With the breakup of the Soviet Union now complete, and its constituent nations now competing independently, Atlanta was able to tie the record rowing participation of the 1992 Games with 45 countries taking part. Ukraine and Belarus were among the former Soviet states that made an independent début, while crews representing “Russia” competed for the first time since Mart Kuusik took bronze at the 1912 single sculls (and, even then, he was ethnically Estonian). The Czech Republic and Slovakia, meanwhile, emerged from the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. One completely new entrant was Algeria, who sent Samia Hireche to take part in the women’s single sculls.

Australia was the surprise winner of the medal count in 1996, having taken gold twice, silver once, and bronze three times, but the table as a whole was spread out much more than it had been in many years. Three other nations, Germany, Switzerland, and Romania, were all double Olympic champions, while Canada tied Australia’s total count with six, one of which was gold and four of which were silver, which put it only one victory away from the top of the table. Belarus won its first Olympic rowing medals as an independent nation, with gold and bronze in the women’s single sculls and eights respectively, as did Ukraine, with silver in the women’s quadruple sculls. By capturing bronze in the men’s eights, Russia had its first Olympic rowing podium finish since 1912 and its first ever with ethnic Russians. Switzerland, meanwhile, won its first Olympic rowing titles since 1928 by emerging victorious in the men’s single and lightweight double sculls.

The 1996 program received a significant overhaul with the addition of three lightweight rowing events, the men and women’s double sculls and the men’s coxless fours. This meant that some other events had to go and thus the men’s coxed pairs and fours and the women’s coxless fours all received the axe. Perhaps due to the greater spread of medals, the only multiple medalists in Atlanta were Canadians Marnie McBean and Kathleen Heddle, who took gold and bronze in the women’s double and quadruple sculls respectively.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Single Sculls, Men Olympic 21 – 27 July 1996 21 21
Double Sculls, Men Olympic 21 – 27 July 1996 39 19
Quadruple Sculls, Men Olympic 22 – 28 July 1996 57 14
Coxless Pairs, Men Olympic 21 – 27 July 1996 36 18
Coxless Fours, Men Olympic 21 – 27 July 1996 56 14
Eights, Men Olympic 22 – 28 July 1996 90 10
Lightweight Double Sculls, Men Olympic 22 – 28 July 1996 38 19
Lightweight Coxless Fours, Men Olympic 22 – 28 July 1996 68 17
Single Sculls, Women Olympic 21 – 27 July 1996 17 17
Double Sculls, Women Olympic 21 – 27 July 1996 28 14
Quadruple Sculls, Women Olympic 22 – 28 July 1996 40 10
Coxless Pairs, Women Olympic 21 – 27 July 1996 26 13
Eights, Women Olympic 22 – 28 July 1996 72 8
Lightweight Double Sculls, Women Olympic 22 – 28 July 1996 33 16
608 (403/205) 45 (43/32)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Single Sculls, Men Xeno MüllerSUI Derek PorterCAN Thomas LangeGER
Double Sculls, Men ItalyITA NorwayNOR FranceFRA
Quadruple Sculls, Men GermanyGER United StatesUSA AustraliaAUS
Coxless Pairs, Men Great BritainGBR AustraliaAUS FranceFRA
Coxless Fours, Men AustraliaAUS FranceFRA Great BritainGBR
Eights, Men NetherlandsNED GermanyGER Russian FederationRUS
Lightweight Double Sculls, Men SwitzerlandSUI NetherlandsNED AustraliaAUS
Lightweight Coxless Fours, Men DenmarkDEN CanadaCAN United StatesUSA
Single Sculls, Women Katsiaryna KhadatovichBLR Silken LaumannCAN Trine HansenDEN
Double Sculls, Women CanadaCAN People's Republic of ChinaCHN NetherlandsNED
Quadruple Sculls, Women GermanyGER UkraineUKR CanadaCAN
Coxless Pairs, Women AustraliaAUS United StatesUSA FranceFRA
Eights, Women RomaniaROU CanadaCAN BelarusBLR
Lightweight Double Sculls, Women RomaniaROU United StatesUSA AustraliaAUS

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Australia AUS 2 1 3 6
Germany GER 2 1 1 4
Romania ROU 2 0 0 2
Switzerland SUI 2 0 0 2
Canada CAN 1 4 1 6
Netherlands NED 1 1 1 3
Belarus BLR 1 0 1 2
Denmark DEN 1 0 1 2
Great Britain GBR 1 0 1 2
Italy ITA 1 0 0 1
United States USA 0 3 1 4
France FRA 0 1 3 4
Norway NOR 0 1 0 1
People's Republic of China CHN 0 1 0 1
Ukraine UKR 0 1 0 1
Russian Federation RUS 0 0 1 1