A rower has one oar in sweep rowing, an oar in each hand in sculling. Boats have one, two, four or eight rowers. The eights have a cox, who steers the boat and directs the crew. In all other boats, one rower steers by controlling a small rudder with a foot pedal. Men and women each compete in single, double and quadruple sculls, lightweight double scull, the eight and coxless pair.
Men also race in coxless fours and lightweight coxless fours.
All boats race in heats, with the top finishers advancing directly to the semifinals or the six-boat final. The progression system and any semifinals depends on the number of boats in each event. The athletes Despite Canada s rich rowing history, we re relative late-comers to Olympic rowing success. Winning 11 medals in the last two Olympics has earned Canada a place among the top rowing powers in the world. Other traditionally strong rowing countries include the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Denmark, Russia, Belarus, Romania, Switzerland and, of course, host country Australia.