Rowing at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's eight
| Men's eights at the Games of the V Olympiad
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The winning team of the Leander.
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| Venue | Djurgårdsbrunnsviken | |||||||||
| Dates | July 17 (heats) July 18 (quarterfinals) July 19 (semifinals, final) |
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| Competitors | 99 from 8 nations | |||||||||
| Medalists | ||||||||||
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Leander Great Britain
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New College Great Britain
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Berlin Germany
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The men's eights was a rowing event held as part of the Rowing at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. It was the fourth appearance of the event. The competition was held from Wednesday, July 17, 1912 to Friday, July 19, 1912.
Ninety-nine rowers from eight nations competed.
The following boats and/or rowing clubs participated:
The heats were held on Wednesday, July 17.
Heat 1: 12 noon The boats kept in company as far as to Stenudden, where the Germans began to show in front, their stroke spurting directly afterwards. The Frenchmen made no response and were soon a length behind. Halfway up the course, however, they showed signs of attempting an answering spurt, but went to pieces - in parts. Their opponents rowed as if they meant to win, and as regards style, muscle and training, were quite superior to the Frenchmen, a fact they displayed still more during the last half of the race. The Germans rowed a stroke varying between 32-38 to the minute. The French, rowing from 40-28 per minute, never seriously threatened their opponents, who won by about four lengths.
Heat 2: 12.20 p.m. Australia started at 44 for the first half minute, the Swedish keeping to 40. The perfectly trained visitors, who rowed like one man, took the lead after 200 metres and never lost it again. When about half the distance was covered, the Swedish boat showed signs of creeping up the Australians, but the latter increased the pace and passed the boat-huse two clear lengths ahead of their opponents, who showed evident signs of fatigue and were beginning to go pieces. The Australians rowed the whole time at a great pace, with only a slight swing, while the style employed by the Swedes bore greater resemblance to English methods. The home-crew was beaten by more than three lengths.
Heat 3: 12.40 p.m. The German crew, which forced Germany's best eight, was in front all the time. The Hungarians rowed at a slower pace than their opponents during the whole of the race; they had a nice recovery but could get no good grip of the water and used the slide incorrectly, pushing it before the body. The Germans, on the other hand, rowed in clean English style, even if they had not the same extraordinarily rapid grip of the water and the swift, easy recovery possessed by their models. The Germans, too, were physically the superior of their opponents, and, before any long time had elapsed, their energetic efforts gave them such a lead that, at the boat-house, more than two lengths separated the boats. All the efforts of the Hungarians were in vain and the Germans won quite easily.
Heat 4: 1 p.m. The Norwegian eight, who were considerably heavier and more powerfully built than their English rivals, got away first, and kept the lead for about 150 metres rowing as much as 40 while New College kept to 38 for the first minute. Both crews rowed excellently, with a long swing and a powerful grip of the water, but the recovery of the Norwegians was not so quiet as that of the Englishmen, neither was the finish all that could be desired. These two faults, or rather, the fact that the Norwegian crew had not reached the same degree of perfection as the English, probably had been covered, rowing a quiet effective stroke of about 32 per minute. New College won by two lengths.
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