epa05335779 The Start of Holland, centre, with Carline Bouw, Inge Janssen, Nicole Beukers and Chantal Achterberg, from right, at the Women's Quadruple Sculls Final race at the Rowing World Cup on Lake Rotsee in Lucerne, Switzerland, 29 May 2016. EPA/URS FLUEELER
DOG ASIDE:
Rowing at the Summer Olympics has been part of the competition since its debut in the 1900 Summer Olympics….as rowing was on the program at the 1896 Summer Olympics….but was cancelled due to bad weather. Only men were allowed to compete until the women’s events were introduced at the 1976 Montreal Olympics….which gave national federations the incentive to support women’s events…while providing a major catalyst for the growth in women’s rowing. Lightweight rowing events which have weight-limited crews….were introduced to the games in 1996. Qualifying for the rowing events is under the jurisdiction of the International Rowing Federation or FISA, its French acronym….which predates the modern Olympics and was the first international sport federation to join the modern Olympic movement.
Canoeing and kayaking have been featured as competition sports in the Summer Olympic Games since the 1936 Berlin Games….although they were demonstration sports at the 1924 Games in Paris. There are two disciplines of canoeing in Olympic competition: slalom and sprint….where two styles of boats are used in this sport….canoes with 1 or 2 canoers….and kayaks with 1, 2 or 4 kayakers. This leads to the name designation of each event. For example, “C-1” is a canoe singles event and “K-2” is a kayak doubles event. Races are usually 500 metres or 1000 metres long….although there were also 10 km events from 1936 to 1956. On 13 August 2009, it was announced by the International Canoe Federation that the men’s 500m events would be replaced at the 2012 Summer Olympics by 200m events with one of them being K-1 200m for the women. The other events for men at 200m will be C-1, K-1, and K-2.
