Women's rowing

Women's rowing is the participation of women in the sport of rowing. Women row in all boat classes, from single scull to coxed eights, across the same age ranges and standards as men, from junior amateur through university-level to elite athlete. Typically men and women compete in separate crews although mixed crews and mixed team events also take place. Coaching for women is similar to that for men.

At an international level, the first women's races were introduced in the 1954 European Rowing Championships. Women's rowing was added to the Olympic Games programme in 1976 at a distance of 1000 metres then extended to 2000 metres in 1985, the distance raced at the 1988 Summer Olympics and thereafter, consistent with men's rowing events at the Olympics.

For most of its history, rowing has been a male dominated sport. Although rowing's roots as a sport in the modern Olympics can be traced back to the original 1896 games in Athens, it was not until the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal that women were allowed to participate (at a distance of 1000 metres) – well after their fellow athletes in similar sports such as swimming, athletics, cycling, and canoeing. This increased the growth of women's rowing because it created the incentive for national rowing federations to support women's events. Rowing at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London included six events for women compared with eight for men.

Despite its male domination, women's competitive rowing can be traced back to the early 19th century, and an image of a women's double scull race made the cover of Harper's Weekly in 1870. Wellesley College in Massachusetts was the first school to organize a competitive rowing team for women in the late 19th century. The 19th Century English rower Ann Glanville achieved national celebrity becoming known as the champion female rower of the world; her all-women crew often winning against the best male teams. In 1892, four young women started what became ZLAC Rowing Club in San Diego, California, which is thought today to be the world's oldest continuously existing all-women's rowing club.Newnham College Boat Club was formed the following year in Cambridge, England. In 1927, the first Women's Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge was held. For the first few years it was an exhibition, and it later became a race. Ernestine Bayer, called the "Mother of Women's Rowing", formed the Philadelphia Girls' Rowing Club in 1938.

...
Wikipedia