Venue Lake Casitas | Date 30 July – 5 August | |
Competitors 447 (286 men, 161 women) from 38 nations | ||
Rowing at the 1984 Summer Olympics featured 14 events in total, for both men and women. Events were held at Lake Casitas.
Due to the Eastern Bloc boycott of these Olympics, some of the strongest rowing nations like East Germany, the USSR or Bulgaria were not present. However, this boycott gave an opportunity to Romania, which was one of the few eastern European countries to come to the Games, going on to dominate in women's sports, winning 5 gold medals in 6 events. Both Canada (gold) and USA (silver) had beaten the reigning (boycotting) two-time Olympic champions from East Germany in the men's 8 twice at the Lucerne pre-olympic regatta.
Steve Redgrave won his first of five consecutive gold medals. Elisabeta Oleniuc, later known as Elisabeta Lipă, also won her first gold medal. Twenty years later she won her fifth gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
The quadruple sculls events, as in 1976 and 1980, were again held without coxswain for men and with coxswain for women.