Concept2 Forum

Just out of (frustrated) curiosity; when was the last time the USA was shut out of any medals in rowing at the Olympics?

Go the Kiwi's we are sucking up the Golds.

Our population is just 5 million.

Lets face it however, its a bit of an obscure sport. If you wanted to win a medal its a great choice as opposed to say cycling that has a much higher profile.

That said its got pretty big at college level now due to our success in the past. When I was at college it simply never existed.

Answer: This is the first time.

Congrats to the Kiwis and Australians for their performances. Must be that magical southern hemisphere water...

Cyclist2 wrote: ↑

July 29th, 2021, 9:40 pm

Just out of (frustrated) curiosity; when was the last time the USA was shut out of any medals in rowing at the Olympics?

Well we got silver at U23 championship - men's 8.
https://worldrowing.com/event/2021-worl ... mpionships

Pretty wild to see the US completely shut out of the medals.

Collegiate rowing culture in the US has shifted, and I think that has hurt the development of Olympic level Americans.

The IRA regatta has moved into being a big school 8s regatta, where in the past it was a regatta with a lot of diverse boat classes (pairs, fours, freshman events, etc.) and more inclusion of club teams and smaller schools. Take a look at the results from the 2002 IRA regatta, it looks very different from what we see today. https://ira.qra.org/PDF/2002_IRA.pdf

In addition to the shift in the IRA regatta, more and more programs are recruiting internationally. The top IRA schools are good at training Olympians... the only problem is that not as many of them are Americans.

Getting rid of freshman rowing I think has hurt the development of many American athletes. Across the board, it feels like US college rowing programs recruit athletes (US and internationally) for what amounts to a 4 year long training and selection camp - the focus is no longer on development.

Interesting thread. I never rowed in 8s. Only seat I have known is bowman in a 4+