# Rowing at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's eight

The men's eight competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro took place at the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon. It was held from 8 to 13 August. There were 7 boats (63 competitors) from 7 nations. The event was won by Great Britain, the nation's first victory in the men's eight since 2000 and fourth overall (second to the United States' 12 wins). Defending champions Germany finished with silver this time. The Netherlands earned bronze.

## Background

This was the 27th appearance of the event. Rowing had been on the programme in 1896 but was cancelled due to bad weather. The men's eight has been held every time that rowing has been contested, beginning in 1900.
The top two contenders in 2016 were Germany—defending Olympic champion, winner of each European championship since London 2012, and runner-up at each World championship since then—and Great Britain, which had beaten Germany at each of those World championships. Both teams had six men with prior Olympic medals.
For the fourth consecutive Games, no nations made their debut in the event. Five of the seven teams had competed in all four of those Games, at least; Italy had competed in 2004, but New Zealand was making its first appearance since 1984. The United States made its 24th appearance, most among nations to that point.

## Qualification

Nations had been limited to one boat each since 1920. The 8 qualifiers were:
* 5 boats from the 2015 World Championships
* 3 boats from the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta
The Russian boat was excluded due to the Russian doping scandal, leaving only 7 boats to compete.

## Competition format

The "eight" event featured nine-person boats, with eight rowers and a coxswain. It was a sweep rowing event, with the rowers each having one oar (and thus each rowing on one side). The course used the 2000 metres distance that became the Olympic standard in 1912 (with the exception of 1948). Races were held in up to six lanes.
The competition consisted of two main rounds (semifinals and finals) as well as a repechage. The competition format was adjusted slightly due to having 7 boats, rather than the typical 8, compete; no "B" final was held.
* Semifinals: Two heats of three or four boats each. The top boat in each heat (2 boats total) advanced directly to the "A" final, while all other boats (5 total) went to the repechage.
* Repechage: A single heat of five boats. The top four boats rejoined the semifinal winners in the "A" final, with the 5th boat eliminated.
* Finals: The "A" final consisted of the top six boats, awarding medals and 4th through 6th place. With only one boat not competing in the "A" final, no "B" final was needed.

## Schedule

All times are Brasília Time (UTC−3).
| Date | Time | Round |
| Monday, 8 August 2016 | 9:10 | Semifinals |
| Thursday, 11 August 2016 | 11:00 | Repechage |
| Saturday, 13 August 2016 | 11:27 | Final |

## Results
### Semifinals

The winners of each heat qualified for the final, while the remainder went to the repechage.

#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Rowers | Coxswain | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Scott DurantTom RansleyAndrew Triggs HodgeMatt GotrelPete ReedPaul BennettMatt LangridgeWill Satch | Phelan Hill | Great Britain | 5:34.23 | Q |
| 2 | Kaj HendriksRobert LückenBoaz MeylinkBoudewijn RöellOlivier SiegelaarDirk UittenbogaardMechiel VersluisTone Wieten | Peter Wiersum | Netherlands | 5:36.16 | R |
| 3 | Michael BrakeIsaac GraingerStephen JonesAlex KennedyShaun KirkhamTom MurrayBrook RobertsonJoe Wright | Caleb Shepherd | New Zealand | 5:36.28 | R |
| 4 | Luca AgamennoniVincenzo CapelliPierpaolo FrattiniFabio InfimoEmanuele LiuzziMario PaonessaMatteo StefaniniSimone Venier | Enrico D'Aniello | Italy | 5:52.83 | R |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Rowers | Coxswain | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Maximilian MunskiMalte JakschikAndreas KuffnerEric JohannesenMaximilian ReineltFelix DrahottaRichard SchmidtHannes Ocik | Martin Sauer | Germany | 5:38.22 | Q |
| 2 | Sam DommerHans StruzynaAlexander KarwowskiGlenn OchalStephen KasprzykMichael di SantoRobert MunnAustin Hack | Samuel Ojserkis | United States | 5:40.16 | R |
| 3 | Zbigniew SchodowskiRobert FuchsKrystian AranowskiMateusz WilangowskiMikołaj BurdaMichał SzpakowskiMarcin BrzezińskiPiotr Juszczak | Daniel Trojanowski | Poland | 5:42.32 | R |

### Repechage

The first four advance to Final A.
| Rank | Rowers | Coxswain | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Sam DommerHans StruzynaAlexander KarwowskiGlenn OchalStephen KasprzykMichael di SantoRobert MunnAustin Hack | Samuel Ojserkis | United States | 5:51.13 | Q |
| 2 | Kaj HendriksRobert LückenBoaz MeylinkBoudewijn RöellOlivier SiegelaarDirk UittenbogaardMechiel VersluisTone Wieten | Peter Wiersum | Netherlands | 5:52.95 | Q |
| 3 | Michael BrakeIsaac GraingerStephen JonesAlex KennedyShaun KirkhamTom MurrayBrook RobertsonJoe Wright | Caleb Shepherd | New Zealand | 5:56.94 | Q |
| 4 | Zbigniew SchodowskiRobert FuchsKrystian AranowskiMateusz WilangowskiMikołaj BurdaMichał SzpakowskiMarcin BrzezińskiPiotr Juszczak | Daniel Trojanowski | Poland | 5:59.22 | Q |
| 5 | Luca AgamennoniVincenzo CapelliPierpaolo FrattiniFabio InfimoEmanuele LiuzziMario PaonessaMatteo StefaniniSimone Venier | Enrico D'Aniello | Italy | 6:05.12 | |

### Final

| Rank | Rowers | Coxswain | Nation | Time |
| | Scott DurantTom RansleyAndrew Triggs HodgeMatt GotrelPete ReedPaul BennettMatt LangridgeWill Satch | Phelan Hill | Great Britain | 5:29.63 |
| | Maximilian MunskiMalte JakschikAndreas KuffnerEric JohannesenMaximilian ReineltFelix DrahottaRichard SchmidtHannes Ocik | Martin Sauer | Germany | 5:30.96 |
| | Kaj HendriksRobert LückenBoaz MeylinkBoudewijn RöellOlivier SiegelaarDirk UittenbogaardMechiel VersluisTone Wieten | Peter Wiersum | Netherlands | 5:31.59 |
| 4 | Sam DommerHans StruzynaAlexander KarwowskiGlenn OchalStephen KasprzykMichael di SantoRobert MunnAustin Hack | Samuel Ojserkis | United States | 5:34.23 |
| 5 | Zbigniew SchodowskiRobert FuchsKrystian AranowskiMateusz WilangowskiMikołaj BurdaMichał SzpakowskiMarcin BrzezińskiPiotr Juszczak | Daniel Trojanowski | Poland | 5:34.62 |
| 6 | Michael BrakeIsaac GraingerStephen JonesAlex KennedyShaun KirkhamTom MurrayBrook RobertsonJoe Wright | Caleb Shepherd | New Zealand | 5:36.64 |