Rowing - Debut in Olympics

Rowing entered the Olympic Games 1896 in Athens, but the competition rowers in the capital of Greece, then to have failed. Because of bad weather, or rather, too much wind. Rowing at the Summer Olympics has been part of the competition since the 1900 in Paris on the River Seine near the bridge Asner. The first champion in singles races was a Frenchman Henri Barrle. In twos with steering gold won the Dutch Brandt, Klein, and Brockmann, in eight Americans took priority, and in fours with the steering - the Germans. Qualifying for the rowing events is under the jurisdiction of the International Rowing Federation (or FISA, its French acronym). FISA predates the modern Olympics and was the first international sport federation to join the modern Olympic movement. Only men were allowed to compete until the women's events were introduced at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Lightweight rowing events (which have weight-limited crews) were introduced to the games in 1996. The lightweight events were threatened in 2002 when the Programme Commission of the IOC recommended that, outside of combat sports and weightlifting, there should not be weight-category events. The Executive Board overturned this recommendation and the lightweight rowing has been continued.

Today all races are raced over a 2000 m course, but this did not become standard before the Stockholm Olympics in 1912. Before this it was raced over various distances. Women's races were raced over 1,000 meters until 1988 when they were changed to 2,000 meters. Early games featured match races between two or three boats. The modern six boat side-by-side format was first adopted at the 1936 Olympic Games, and has been the standard since the 1956 Olympic Games. There is a limited number of crews permitted to race, so the International Rowing Federation holds qualification events in order to determine who competes at the Olympic Games. At the Olympic Games, each National Olympic Committee can only have one boat per event. The main qualification comes from the previous year's World Rowing Championships.