German consistency – women’s quadruple sculls

In 2012, Ukraine took gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games pushing Germany into second. Since then Ukraine has not been active internationally in the women’s quad.  The opportunity was not missed by Germany who won World Championship gold for the next two years and set a new World Best Time in the process.

In the season that has just been, Germany used early season regattas to decide on their best quad line up. By the second leg of the World Rowing Cup series in Aiguebelette, France, the crew was Annekatrin Thiele, Carina Baer, Julia Lier, Lisa Schmidla – and this line up remained for the rest of the season as the fastest quad internationally, wrapping up the season by taking the big prize in Amsterdam at the World Rowing Championships.

Chasing the Germans was a young New Zealand crew that powered their way to the podium at both World Rowing Cup regattas that they entered (Aiguebelette and Lucerne) finishing with bronze twice. The crew included bow seat Sarah Grey who had already known prior success in the quad, having won bronze at the World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia, in 2011.

Canada came back this year with the same crew that won World Championship silver in Chungju, Korea, last year. After finishing just outside of the medals in fourth at World Rowing Cup II this year in Aiguebelette, they made their way to silver in Lucerne, securing their position early on in the race behind Germany.  

At World Rowing Cup II, the United States showed up with a brand-new crew. Two of its members, Tracy Eisser and Grace Latz, had no prior international racing experience. While Felice Mueller had raced and medalled internationally in various sweep boat classes at the under-23 level. In Aiguebelette, Olympic Champion from the women’s eight, Eleanor Logan joined the trio and helped them take hold of a silver medal. The US team sent only a small team to Lucerne without the women’s quad. For Amsterdam, Logan switched back to her seat in the legendary US women’s eight, opening the quad spot up for Olivia Coffey, also freshly out of the under-23 ranks.

Less noticeable during the World Rowing Cup season was China. Since their Olympic gold medal in the quad in 2008, China has not been a serious challenger in this boat class. Preparing their quad gradually throughout the 2014 season, the final Chinese line-up was decided in time for Amsterdam. Previously at the World Rowing Cup regattas, the Chinese athletes that would form the World Championship quad had raced in the eight, double, single and a different quad line-up. What China did at the World Rowing Championships was unexpected.

In the World Championship final, the leaders were obvious early on. Germany had a boat length’s lead by the half-way mark. Meanwhile behind them was a battle for silver and bronze between China and the United States. The two crews were practically on top of one another throughout most of the race. With 500m to row, they were level. China then upped its stroke rate to 47 strokes per minute and not only moved away from the USA, but closed on the Germans. At the line, Germany had a clear water advantage, crossing the line in a new World Best Time of 6:06.84. China took silver and the United States bronze.

Leading up to Rio, will Germany manage to keep its spot as the favourites? Will Ukraine make a comeback? Will the USA and China continue their medal-winning ways? World Rowing looks forward to discovering how the women’s quadruple sculls field continues to evolve in 2015.

2014 World Rowing Championships women’s quadruple sculls final

2014 World Rowing Cup, Lucerne, SUI, women’s quadruple sculls final

2014 World Rowing Cup, Aiguebelette, FRA, women’s quadruple sculls final