Less than a year to the Olympics ? How to Qualify

The next step, Milan’s start line
© Getty Images

The path has been mapped out. First, it helps to have a boat, secondly a place to row. Then you need to practice for years and years and finally you go through your own country’s trials and if they select you, you get a chance to try out for a spot at the Olympic qualifying regatta held one year before the Olympic Games.

It’s now one year out and the first way to qualify is about to begin at the World Championships in Milan, Italy starting on 24 August. The annual World Championship regatta will be uniting with the qualifying regatta and 130 spots are up for grabs in the 14 Olympic events. For most events this means finishing from first through to eleventh making the B-finals (spot six through twelve) just as exciting and competitive.

But for the rower, the challenge does not end there. Even if you train really hard, go really fast and qualify for the Olympics, it is the boat rather than the rower that earns an Olympic spot for their country. The rower then has to be chosen by their country in 2004 and some countries, once they have qualified the boat, leave this decision up until the very last minute. For example, the rowers in the United States men’s eight for the 2000 Olympics knew only one month before the games began that they were in the boat.

But in terms of qualification, this is just one of the steps. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) allocates the number of rowers who are allowed to compete and, just to spice things up, this can vary depending on where you come from. FISA has divided the world into four regions ?Asia, Africa, Latin America and the rest of the world ? and has allocated a specific number of boats to these regions.

So the starting point is the 2003 Milan World Championships that are open to any nation. This will be followed by continental qualification regattas in Asia (China), Africa (Tunisia) and Latin America (El Salvador) in May 2004. A last chance for any nation is then made available just before the World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland in June 2004. By this time the number of available qualifying spots has been narrowed down to 32 boats essentially meaning you have to win or come second. For example in the women’s quad event only one boat will qualify, second place rows away with Olympic hopes gone, while in the women’s single a top three finish sees you on your way to Athens. 

Only one boat per event is allowed to qualify for each country. In the past this has meant some countries have a boat in every event while others may have only a single entry and some countries miss out entirely. For example at the Sydney Olympics the United States was the only country that qualified an entry in every boat class while Brazil had one lone single racing. 

Here are the numbers for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens:
Number of rowers:             550
                                        358 men
                                    192 women