Olympic countdown: women's quadruple sculls

See Martin Cross’s “Dream Crew” and more statistics below.

The women’s quad has featured on the Olympic programme for nearly 40 years, since 1988. And, as with the men’s quad, Germany is the nation that made the greatest impact on this boat class. The statistics are remarkable. Since they first medalled at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games, the German women have not missed a single Olympic podium, winning a total of six medals, four of them gold.

In the rankings, Ukraine comes in second with two medals overall (one of them gold), while China and East Germany tie in third place with one gold medal each. Great Britain was also a main player at the Olympic level in the women’s quadruple sculls in the last decade, winning three silver medals between 2000 and 2008.

Kathrin Boron, Germany’s most successful female athlete ever and one of the most successful female rowers of all time, raced at five Olympic Games, three of which she competed at in the women’s quadruple sculls. She claimed two of her four Olympic titles in the quad, at the Atlanta 1996 and the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. In 2008, her last Olympic participation at the age of 39, Boron added a silver in this event to her Olympic medal collection. This has helped place her in fourth position overall on the list of all-time most successful Olympic female rowers.

Boron is not alone. Fellow countrywomen Manuela Lutze and Kerstin El Qalqili also raced twice to Olympic gold and once to Olympic silver in the women’s quad. One of their Olympic titles was won without Boron, at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Rowing Regatta. Lutze and El Qalqili are 19^th and 21^st respectively on the list of all-time top Olympic female rowers.

Leading up to Rio, Germany remains the top crew to look out for. In this Olympic cycle, Germany has secured two World Rowing Championships (2013 and 2014) and one world silver (2015). So recently the only ‘glitches’ has been Ukraine taking gold at the London Olympics and the United States scoring gold at the 2015 World Rowing Championships. This was a first for the US who have never before won the quad. It followed a pattern of improvement that included bronze in 2012 and 2014.

The World Best Time is currently owned by Germany after they set it in 2104, They also set the two previous best times, one in 2012 and the one prior in 1994.