  rowing at the 2004 summer olympics took place at the schinias olympic rowing and canoeing centre and featured 550 competitors taking part in 14 events. the medals were split among 22 countries, romania topping the medal table, their women winning 3 golds, with the traditionally strong germany, great britain and australia picking up four medals in total. romania's elisabeta lipÄ won her fourth consecutive olympic gold medal and fifth overall. lipÄ, who was part of romania's women's eight, won her first in los angeles in 1984 followed by gold medals in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004, a record span of 20 years between her first and last gold medal. it was also her eighth overall, which is more than any other rower, having won a silver and a bronze in 1988 and an additional silver in 1992. in winning her medal at age 39, lipÄ became the oldest rower to win a gold medal and the oldest athlete in an endurance sport to win a gold medal. thumb|left|275px|team usa competes in the lightweight four rowing competition. matthew pinsent also won his fourth consecutive medal, this time without legendary partner steve redgrave. the british men's coxless four of steve williams, james cracknell, ed coode with pinsent at stroke narrowly saw off the challenge of the world champion canadian crew of cameron baerg, thomas herschmiller, jake wetzel and barney williams. it was a dramatic stretch run with the lead literally changing hands with each stroke. (in rowing, the boat will surge depending on where the rowers are during the stroke. pinsent would later say that he thought they had won because they were in the best part of the stroke when they crossed the line). great britain won with a time of 6:06.98, just 8/100ths of a second faster than the canadians. pinsent later wept at the medal ceremony. matching lipÄ's and pinsent's feat of four consecutive gold medals was german sculler kathrin boron in the women's quadruple sculls. she had won the doubles event in barcelona 1992 and sydney 2000 and the quadruple sculls in atlanta 1996. australian james tomkins, competing in his fifth games at the age of 39, won his third gold medal, and fourth medal overall, teaming with his longtime partner drew ginn in the [[rowing at the 2004 summer olympics â men's coxless
2004_Summer_Olympics_events 2004_in_rowing Rowing_at_the_2004_Summer_Olympics Rowing_at_the_Summer_Olympics