Quadruple Sculls, Men

Three of Germany’s four 2012 Olympic champions in the Men’s Quadruple Sculls, Karl Schulz, Phillipp Wende, and Lauritz Schoof, returned to the Games in Rio to defend their crown and brought Hans Gruhne with them. In the intervening years, the German squad had earned silver, bronze, and gold at the last three World Championships and gold and bronze at the 2013 and 2014 European Championships respectively. The opening heats, however, saw the Germans consigned to the repêchage after coming in third behind Estonia and Ukraine. Estonia’s squad was the same one that had come in fourth in 2012, had won the 2016 European Championships, and earned bronze in the 2015 World Championships, while Ukraine’s team had been the 2014 European and World Champions, and the 2015 European runners-up. The other heat was won by pre-race favorite Australia, which had three of the four members of its 2015 World Championship silver medalists and two of its 2012 Olympic bronze medalists. The final automatic qualifier, Poland, had been the 2013 European runner-up, but with an entirely different lineup.

Germany won the repêchage comfortably allowing it to qualify for the final alongside Great Britain who, with at least two members from its Rio squad, had been the 2014 World and European runner-up, the 2013 World bronze medalist, and the 2015 European bronze medalist. In the final, Germany pulled together again to win over a second ahead of the Australians, while the Estonians finished ahead of Poland for the bronze medal.