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Rowing is one of the original sports in the modern Olympic Games.
• Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, was
a rower.
Rowers were the third largest U.S. delegation (48 athletes) to the Olympic
Games in 2000.
• Eight-oared shells are about 60-feet long - that's 20 yards
on a football field.
Rowing was the first intercollegiate sport contested In the United States.
• The first rowing race was between Harvard and Yale in 1852.
• Physiologically, rowers are superb examples of physical conditioning.
Cross-country skiers and long distance speed skaters are comparable
in terms of the physical demands the sport places on the athletes.
• An eight, which carries more than three-quarters of a ton (1,750
pounds), may weigh as little as 200 pounds. The boats are made of fiberglass
composite material.
• Singles may be as narrow as 10 inches across, weigh only 23
pounds, and stretch nearly 27-feet long.
• The first rowing club in the U.S. was the Detroit Boat Club,
founded in 1839.
• The first amateur sport organization was a rowing club - Philadelphia's
Schuylkill Navy, founded In 1858.
• From 1920 until 1956, the USA won the gold medal in the men's
eight at every Olympic Games.
• The first national governing body for a sport in the United
States was for rowing. Founded as the National Association for Amateur
Oarsmen in 1872, it was changed in 1982 to the United States Rowing
Association.
• Yale College founded the first collegiate boat club in the U.S.
in 1843.
• FISA, the first international sports federation, was founded
in 1892.
• Dr. Benjamin Spock, the famous baby doctor, was an Olympic rower
in1924 and won a gold medal in the eight. Gregory Peck rowed at theUniversity
of California In 1937.
• Physiologists claim that rowing a 2,000-meter race - equivalent
to 1.25 miles - is equal to playing back-to-back basketball games.In
1997, Jamie Koven became the first American to win the men's single
sculls at the world championships since 1966.
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