THE 14 EVENTS

Men (4 sculling and 4 sweeping events)

• The 4 sculling boats: Skiff, coxless pairs, lightweight double sculls without coxswain and coxless fours
• The 4 sweeping boats: Coxless pairs, coxless fours, lightweight coxless fours and eights (only boat with coxswain)

Women (4 sculling and 2 sweeping events)

• The 4 sculling boats: Skiff, coxless pairs, lightweight coxless pairs and coxless fours
• The 2 sweeping boats: Coxless pairs and eights (only boat with coxswain)

THE FORMAT

Qualifying rounds, repechages, quarter-finals for events with more than 24 boats, semi-finals and final

(6 boats for each race, in qualifying this may vary due to the number of competitors)

MILESTONES

1715

Creation of the "Doggett's Coat and Badge Race", conceived by Thomas Doggett.

1829

1st 'eights' match between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

1896

Though part of the Olympic programme, the rowing events were cancelled because of bad weather.

1900

Official appearance of rowing in the Olympic programme.

1976

Women are admitted into the Olympic rowing events.

1996

Lightweight boats and new disciplines are introduced for both men and women at the Olympic Games in Atlanta.

2004: Romania's Elisabeta Oleniuc Lipa wins a record fifth consecutive gold medal between 1984 and 2004 spanning a period of 20 years. She also won a record eight medals the most amongst rowers.

STARS

Pertti Karppinen (Finland)

The king of skiff. 3 Olympic gold medals at consecutive Games (1976, 1980, 1984), plus two world titles. A specialist of late comebacks.

Steven Redgrave (Great Britain)

The greatest ever. 5 gold medals at 5 consecutive Games between Los Angeles 1984 and Sydney 2000. 9 world titles, in pairs and in coxless fours.

Agostino, Carmine and Giuseppe Abbagnale (Italy)

A unique saga. 6 Olympic medals (5 gold and 1 silver) in 5 different Olympiads between 1984 and 2000 for these celebrated brothers. They also won 16 world titles.