Single Sculls, Women

Belarus had won the women’s single sculls event at the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 1997 and 1999 World Championships with Yekaterina Karsten, who returned to the Games in 2000 as the favorite to defend her crown. Other contenders included Germany’s Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski, runner-up at the last two World Championships and 1996 Olympic champion in the quadruple sculls, Rumyana Neykova, the 1999 World third-place finisher, and Sweden’s Maria Brandin, the 1995 World Champion and 1997 and 1998 bronze medalist. Brandin was also the winner of the Princess Royal Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta every year from 1993 through 1998 except 1994. Russia had won the 1998 World Championships, but sent a different rower, Yuliya Aleksandrova, to Sydney.

Rutschow-Stomporowski had the fastest time in the opening round, in a heat that included Aleksandrova, while Karsten, Neykova, and New Zealand’s Sonia Waddell won the other heats. Brandin, meanwhile, was eliminated in Neykova’s semi-final, which included Waddell and Australian Gina Douglas, while Germany, Belarus, and Russia all advanced in the other heat. In the medal round, the final section of the course played host to an extremely exciting conclusion, with the three front runners finishing within a second of each other and over seven seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Neykova and Karsten seemed dead even as they crossed the finish line, but a photo finish demonstrated that the latter had defended her gold medal by the slimmest of margins: 0.01 seconds. Rutschow-Stomporowski arrived very shortly thereafter, but still only in time for bronze.