Which Countries Made It To The Rowing Finals In The Olympics?
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Posted by
DPH2002
,
14 August 2012
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1,936 views
The medal-obsessed media and fans rarely focus on who competed in the finals. Rather, it is all about which country won gold, silver, or bronze.
From my perspective, making it into the finals of the Olympics is a pretty big accomplishment, for the most part. Yes, there were some countries whose athletes were ushered into the Olympics with only 3 months of rowing experience but overall the competitors had been training very hard.
In the Open (Senior) forum, we tracked and tabulated every instance where a country made it into the finals of an Olympic rowing event. Overall, 59 countries had entries in the finals. What is interesting is the lack of correlation between wealth and nation size and number of final entries. Some executive directors of national rowing federations might be in hot water over these results...
First, the countries with at least 10 events in the finals:
In terms of small countries winning big in the finals, there are three that really strutted their stuff: Okay, but any human interest angle to all of this? When you start recording and tabulating the information, you can't help come across some interesting relationships and interesting people.
First off is Mads Rasmussen who I met via adtan in Denmark. Both he and his wife competed at the 2012 London Olympics. Is that a first, a married couple competing at the Olympics?
Next are the Greek twins, a phenomenon you find fairly often in rowing. They rowed in the pair and their images, well they're not blond but wow ...!!! Check out Niko & Apos
Then there are the sisters from the Czech Republic: Lenka & Jitka
Finally, there is the amazing overachiever, and possibly the only rower at the 2012 Olympics who won two medals, one in the Women's Single Scull and one in the Women's Double Scull: Kim Crow.
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For the eagle-eyed amongst us, some will protest some missing entries in their countries' final tabulation:
United States:
From my perspective, making it into the finals of the Olympics is a pretty big accomplishment, for the most part. Yes, there were some countries whose athletes were ushered into the Olympics with only 3 months of rowing experience but overall the competitors had been training very hard.
In the Open (Senior) forum, we tracked and tabulated every instance where a country made it into the finals of an Olympic rowing event. Overall, 59 countries had entries in the finals. What is interesting is the lack of correlation between wealth and nation size and number of final entries. Some executive directors of national rowing federations might be in hot water over these results...
First, the countries with at least 10 events in the finals:
- Tied for first with 13 entries: Great Britain, Australia, and Germany
- New Zealand had 11 entries
- United States had 10 entries
- China - 8 entries
- Italy - 7 entries
- Canada - 7 entries
- Netherlands - 7 entries
- Argentina - 6 entries
- Poland - 6 entries
- France - 5 entries
- Denmark - 5 entries
In terms of small countries winning big in the finals, there are three that really strutted their stuff: Okay, but any human interest angle to all of this? When you start recording and tabulating the information, you can't help come across some interesting relationships and interesting people.
First off is Mads Rasmussen who I met via adtan in Denmark. Both he and his wife competed at the 2012 London Olympics. Is that a first, a married couple competing at the Olympics?
Next are the Greek twins, a phenomenon you find fairly often in rowing. They rowed in the pair and their images, well they're not blond but wow ...!!! Check out Niko & Apos
Then there are the sisters from the Czech Republic: Lenka & Jitka
Finally, there is the amazing overachiever, and possibly the only rower at the 2012 Olympics who won two medals, one in the Women's Single Scull and one in the Women's Double Scull: Kim Crow.
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For the eagle-eyed amongst us, some will protest some missing entries in their countries' final tabulation:
United States:
- men's single scull - although the IOC listed him as 24th overall, he didn't row in the final (DNS) so as far as I'm concerned, he didn't compete in the finals
- men's quad - although the IOC listed them as 13th overall, since they were a single boat in a heat, they could not compete in the finals and therefore were not counted
- women's single scull - although the IOC listed her as 18th overall, she didn't row in the final (DNS) so as far as I'm concerned, she didn't compete in the finals.
- men's lightweight four - although the IOC listed them as 13th overall, since they were a single boat in a heat, they could not compete in the finals and therefore were not counted
- men's double sculls - although the IOC listed them as 13th overall, since they were a single boat in a heat, they could not compete in the finals and therefore were not counted
- men's pair - although the IOC listed them as 13th overall, since they were a single boat in a heat, they could not compete in the finals and therefore were not counted. the situation was all the more heartbreaking because the Serbians did not start and therefore robbed the Hungarians of their chance to compete in the Final B
- men's four - although the IOC listed them as 13th overall, since they were a single boat in a heat, they could not compete in the finals and therefore were not counted
- men's pair - although the IOC listed them as 12th overall, they didn't row in the final (DNS) so as far as I'm concerned, they didn't compete in the finals
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