Rowing at the 2008 Summer Olympics

Dates 9 – 17 August 2008
Medal Events 14

Rowing at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park, a venue built specifically for the Games. Continuing efforts to draw in more countries to all events in the Olympics meant that a record 60 nations took part in the Beijing tournament. Most of the new nations appeared in the single sculls: Rodrigo Ideus for Columbia, Paul Etia Ndoumbè for Cameroon, and Norberto Bernárdez for Honduras in the men’s, Myanmar’s Zin Latt Shwe and Honduras’ Camila Vargas for the women, and Iran, who sent Mohsen Shadi to the men’s and Homa Hosseini to the women’s. The lone exception was Iraq, who made its début in the double sculls with Haidar Nozad and Hamzah Jebur. Mathias Raymond, meanwhile, gave Monaco its first appearance in Olympic rowing since the 1928 Games, when its men had competed in the coxed fours.

Great Britain topped the medal table for the first time since 1948 with six, two of each kind. Australia was the only other nation to win more than one title, with victories in the men’s double sculls and coxless pair, while Canada was the only other country to take more than three medals total: one gold, one silver, and two bronze. China, with its surprising win in the women’s quadruple sculls, became an Olympic champion in rowing for the first time. The 2008 program remained the same from the three previous editions, which is, as of 2012, its current state. There only multiple medalists in Beijing were the same ones from Athens: Georgeta Andrunache and Viorica Susanu were again champions in the coxless pairs, although they only managed bronze this time in the coxed eights.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Single Sculls, Men Olympic 9 – 16 August 2008 32 32
Double Sculls, Men Olympic 9 – 16 August 2008 28 14
Quadruple Sculls, Men Olympic 10 – 17 August 2008 52 13
Coxless Pairs, Men Olympic 9 – 16 August 2008 29 14
Coxless Fours, Men Olympic 9 – 16 August 2008 55 13
Eights, Men Olympic 11 – 17 August 2008 75 8
Lightweight Double Sculls, Men Olympic 10 – 17 August 2008 41 20
Lightweight Coxless Fours, Men Olympic 10 – 17 August 2008 53 13
Single Sculls, Women Olympic 9 – 16 August 2008 26 26
Double Sculls, Women Olympic 9 – 16 August 2008 21 10
Quadruple Sculls, Women Olympic 10 – 17 August 2008 32 8
Coxless Pairs, Women Olympic 9 – 16 August 2008 20 10
Eights, Women Olympic 11 – 17 August 2008 65 7
Lightweight Double Sculls, Women Olympic 10 – 17 August 2008 34 17
555 (364/191) 60 (53/38)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Single Sculls, Men Olaf TufteNOR Ondřej SynekCZE Mahé DrysdaleNZL
Double Sculls, Men AustraliaAUS EstoniaEST Great BritainGBR
Quadruple Sculls, Men PolandPOL ItalyITA FranceFRA
Coxless Pairs, Men AustraliaAUS CanadaCAN New ZealandNZL
Coxless Fours, Men Great BritainGBR AustraliaAUS FranceFRA
Eights, Men CanadaCAN Great BritainGBR United StatesUSA
Lightweight Double Sculls, Men Great BritainGBR GreeceGRE DenmarkDEN
Lightweight Coxless Fours, Men DenmarkDEN PolandPOL CanadaCAN
Single Sculls, Women Rumyana NeykovaBUL Michelle GueretteUSA Katsiaryna KarstenBLR
Double Sculls, Women New ZealandNZL GermanyGER Great BritainGBR
Quadruple Sculls, Women People's Republic of ChinaCHN Great BritainGBR GermanyGER
Coxless Pairs, Women RomaniaROU People's Republic of ChinaCHN BelarusBLR
Eights, Women United StatesUSA NetherlandsNED RomaniaROU
Lightweight Double Sculls, Women NetherlandsNED FinlandFIN CanadaCAN

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Great Britain GBR 2 2 2 6
Australia AUS 2 1 0 3
Canada CAN 1 1 2 4
United States USA 1 1 1 3
Netherlands NED 1 1 0 2
People's Republic of China CHN 1 1 0 2
Poland POL 1 1 0 2
New Zealand NZL 1 0 2 3
Denmark DEN 1 0 1 2
Romania ROU 1 0 1 2
Bulgaria BUL 1 0 0 1
Norway NOR 1 0 0 1
Germany GER 0 1 1 2
Czechia CZE 0 1 0 1
Estonia EST 0 1 0 1
Finland FIN 0 1 0 1
Greece GRE 0 1 0 1
Italy ITA 0 1 0 1
Belarus BLR 0 0 2 2
France FRA 0 0 2 2