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The sports: Rowing

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Rowing

Rowing

Rowing requires upper-body strength and determination rarely found in landlubbers, no wonder these guys have arms as wide as tree trunks and lungs as deep as swimming pools...
  • Strength
  • Speed
  • Stamina

The Athletes

  • GB LTA mixed coxed fours rowing team

    We asked Mary McLachlan, coach of the GB rowing adaptive coxed fours squad, to introduce us to her boat and talk inspirational leaders

  • Helene Raynsford

    Comeback queen Helene has one Paralympic gold under her belt, and is out of retirement to scoop another

  • Tom Aggar

    Built like the proverbial, Tom Aggar's upper body strength has propelled him to Paralympic glory. Meet the man who won't be beaten on water...

How it works: Rowing

The Paralympic rowing course is 1,000 metres long. There are four boat classes and athletes of varying disabilities in specially adapted boats have to battle through heats for a place in the final.

What you need to know

  • number_1

    Adaptive rowing - so called because the equipment is adapted to the athlete's needs - is one of the youngest sports at the Paralympic Games. The first oars were wielded at the Paralympic Games Beijing 2008.

  • number_2

    The four rowing events at the Paralympic Games are the men's and women's single sculls, the mixed double sculls and the mixed coxed four. In Beijing, 96 athletes took part in the regatta.

  • number_3

    The London 2012 regatta will take place at Dorney Lake, owned by Eton College.

  • number_4

    British rowing has come a long way since the Amateur Rowing Association formed in 1882, stipulating that only damn fine chaps like officers and the university educated could compete.

  • number_5

    Single sculling boats are equipped with buoyancy devices called pontoons, which act as stabilisers and are attached to the boats' riggers, providing additional lateral balance.

What to say: Rowing

"Nothing beats the feeling of getting into a great swing and cracking along at 40 strokes." Which, in other words, means you can row very fast.

Who's good: Rowing

The Brits have got rowing in the blood and ParalympicsGB will be expecting some podium-topping performances at London 2012. In Beijing, the first year rowing was competed at the Paralympic Games, they won two of the four gold medals on offer.

Inside stories

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    The Paralympic Games hall of fame

    • Who has won the most gold medals for rowing at the Paralympic Games?
      • 2008:
        GBR
        GBR 2

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