Who won the Olympics in rowing for Ireland?

Answer 1

HistoryRowing has been an established sport in Ireland for over a century, with the first club being established in the 1830's and Irish clubs competed at Henley as early as the 1870's. It is an all-Ireland sport and clubs are to be found in most counties and in all provinces. The Irish Amateur Rowing Union was established as the governing body for the sport in 1899 and celebrated its centenary last year and has been a member of FISA, the world governing body, since 1948. In that same year, Irish crews competed in the Olympic Regatta at Henley. Rowing has been an Olympic sport since the beginning of the modern Olympics in 1896. In fact, FISA, the world governing body, is the oldest international sports federation in the Olympic movement. World Championships have been held since 1962 and since 1967, Junior World Championships have also been held every year.

On the subject of the Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, had a passion for the sport and rowed from an early age. In the early 1880's he moved to introduce the sport into French schools and in an article, written in 1922, entitled "Sport and Intelligence", Coubertin even stated that rowing was the "ideal discipline".

The Sport

Rowing is a sport, which enjoys the advantage of being a team sport which is fiercely competitive while not, at the same time, being a contact sport. This makes the sport very attractive to all ages and to both sexes and, particularly to modern parents who are concerned about their children being injured while playing contact sports. Rowing is also a sport, which can be enjoyed as a leisure pursuit. The most important aspect of rowing, however, is that it is a sport at which we, in Ireland, can and have competed at the highest level on the world stage and, most significantly, have competed very successfully. In 2001 we won three Gold Medals at the World Championships and two Silver Medals at the U-23 World Regatta. Our performance in the World Championships ranks us in joint third place in the world with Australia behind Germany and Great Britain. A very important dimension to this is that international competition is not restricted to senior athletes only, but has major competitions at all grades.

As a sport, rowing has a fairly long season with only a relatively short closed season and consequently, has a year-round profile. The Competitions Domestic competition falls into two specific categories: 1. Heads of the River Races, which are generally held during the months of October to March. 2. Regatta Season, which covers the period from April to September. The competition structure covers the following categories:

1. Senior

2. Intermediate

3. U-23

4. Junior (U-18)

5. Novice

6. Lightweight

7. Masters

International

Rowing has been one of the most successful of Irish sports, internationally, during the past ten years. Our national crews have won a total of thirteen world championship medals since 1991 (4 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze). At the XXVI Olympiad in Atlanta, Rowing provided Ireland's best result, apart from swimming, with our Men's Lightweight Four finishing a very close fourth. The U-23 crews have also won gold, silver and bronze medals and our Junior crews have had a number of top six finishes at their respective World Championships. In the last two years, our Men's and Women's Junior Crews have competed with great success in the Coupe de la Jeunesse (effectively the European Championships). In 1999 in Cork and 2000 in Switzerland, a total of nine gold, four silver and nine bronze medals were won by our young athletes.

Building on this success, the IARU has applied to host the U23 Nations' Cup ( the unofficial world championships at this level) in Ireland in 2005. The international calendar generally covers the months of May to August, with the obvious exception of the Olympic games. The Home International Regatta is held in July each year and the venue is rotated between the four countries.

The Future

It is the aim of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union to build on the genuine success achieved by our athletes internationally, and also on the strong base of established clubs, which we have throughout the country. The obvious target is to have at least one club in every county and, more importantly, to significantly increase the number of schools and colleges where rowing is enjoyed. Rowing is a sport, which has an extremely clean reputation, is very healthy and environmentally friendly and which, most importantly, can be enjoyed by men and women throughout their lives from teens to the golden years.Referring again to the Baron de Coubertin, he rowed up to the time he died, at the age of 74, and in a booklet "Rowing Cures" published in 1920, he extolled the benefits of rowing on health and its educational value. He highly recommended rowing for arthritis and 'the exhaustion caused by modern living'.