Remember the Olympic rowing moments

26/08/2008

The closing ceremony of the 29th Olympiad in Beijing, China brought to an end the four year cycle around rowing’s most important event, the Olympic Games. As the curtains close on Beijing, rowing nations will reassess, rehire and reshuffle. Coaches will move. Athletes will retire. Memories will remain. A new cycle will begin.

Romania’s five golder

Five gold medals from three Olympic Games. That is the tally for Romania’s Georgeta Damian-Andrunache. Andrunache, 32, has doubled up in the women’s pair and eight at the Sydney Olympics, Athens and Beijing to achieve this total. She also has one bronze after the eight finished behind the United States and the Netherlands this year.

Flag bearers

Not surprisingly Romania’s flag was carried into the closing ceremony by Georgeta Damian-Andrunache. Five gold medals from three Olympics is hard to beat in any sport, let alone in rowing.

Carrying the flag proudly for Hong Kong, China was Hiu Fung Law. Law has spent his entire rowing career in the single and rows, outside of the Olympics, as a lightweight. Law finished 20th in the men’s single and every time he would row down the 2000m Shunyi course the Chinese fans would greet him with rapturous applause. This is Law’s second Olympic Games.

New Zealand was led into the Beijing opening ceremony by a rower (Mahe Drysdale). Two weeks later two rowers held the flag at the closing ceremony. Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell joined a small group of Olympic elites having won two gold medals. The identical twins won the women’s double in 2004 and successfully defended it in an extremely tight photo finish in 2008.

Canadian rowers top of the top 10

When the Montreal Gazette in Canada picked out the 10 favourite Canadian stories from Beijing they chose the men’s eight at the top of their list. Here’s what the Gazette had to say; “They lived with the memory of their fifth-place finish in Athens for four years, then came out and destroyed the field in rowing's marquee event. Great rowers. Better people.”

Forty-two years young and still going strong

Estonia’s Jueri Jaanson is only improving with age. Many a competitor has commented that when they line up at the start with Jaanson in their race, the respect for him is immense. Jaanson won his first Olympic medal at the age of 37 having already been to three Games. Then, just shy of 43 years old, Jaanson won Olympic medal number two – silver in the men’s double at Beijing.

Despite spending practically his entire rowing career in the single, Jaanson proved that you can teach an old single sculler new tricks. The double, with Tonu Endrekson, worked.

Bulgaria’s lone gold

When Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria came second to Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus in a photo finish at the Sydney Olympics, the single sculler had to come back for more. Neykova had been racing – and often losing to – Karsten for ten years. Finally, in 2008, Neykova scored the elusive Olympic gold. She also earned recognition for being the only gold medal won by Bulgaria at the Beijing Olympics.

Rule Britannia

Great Britain appears to still be in a state of shock. The country finished fourth overall on the medals table at these Olympic Games. This is a huge leap in Olympic success for Great Britain and rowing was there to help. British rowers took away six medals, two of them gold, to also claim the status of highest ranked nation in rowing at these Games.