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Rowing has its roots in ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt where it first appeared as a means of transport. However, the sport of rowing began in England in the 1700s. The first races began between the watermen to provided transport over the River Thames. Bets would be placed and increasingly large crowds would begin to show up at the competitions.

Records show that amateur competitions began to pop up around England towards the end of the 18th century. The popularity of the sport at the Oxford and Cambridge Universities led to the first recorded Boat Race in 1829, which attracted enough attention for Henley to begin hosting the know world-renowned annual regatta in 1839. The sport soon gained international popularity, including in America and Canada and across Europe. In fact, America took a leaf out of England’s book and in 1852 the Harvard-Yale Regatta became the very first intercollegiate sporting event in the country.

Due to its widespread practice, rowing has a long history in the Olympic Games, having been introduced in 1900, only missing the first modern Games due to bad weather in 1896. This remains the only Games the sport has missed! However, despite this long history, women’s events weren’t introduced until 1976.

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Rowing has stayed largely the same over the last century
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