Sweep Events:
Unlike sculling which involves the rower to use two oars with one hand each, sweep events involve a minimum of two rowers who use one oar each with both hands. The oars on either side of the boat. One rower will be in charge of the oar submerged on the stroke side - rower's right-hand side – while the other will in charge of the one on the bow side – or the rower's left-hand side.
There are two recognised type of sweep events in the Olympics but the international association stopped recognising multiple events of one form in 1992 – the one that involved the usage of a coxswain – or cox for short – who is another member on the boat in charge of steering as well as motivating and checking the sync between the rowers from time to time. The only sweep events recognised by the Olympics are the coxless events as well as the coxed eight event.
Coxless Pair
This event needs the boat to have two rowers who move forward by synchronising the movement of their independent oars on either side of the boat. Given that this is a coxless event, there is no coxswain to guide the two of them as they compete to finish the 2-kilometre range.
The coxless event is said to be one of the toughest events with the two rowers having to time everything to perfection: the shift of weight, the submerging of the oar and the extracting of the blade – or the tip of the oar – to ensure that they make the most efficient strides in moving forward.
The format for the coxless pair is designed around the 13 pairs who submit a participatory bid before registration deadline day. They have three heats. The first heat will have five while heat two and heat three will have four. Top three from each heat progress to the semi-finals of the event.
The rest are relegated down to the repechages where they still stand a chance to make it to the semifinals. The top three form the repechage makes it to the semifinals. Given only one pair is kicked out of the tournament - the last in the repechage - the remaining twelve pairs make it two semifinals.
The top three in each semifinal makes it to the A finals while the rest six make it to the B finals. Medals can be won only in the A finals. Everyone else partakes for the sake of world rankings.
Coxless Four
The coxless four event involves the use of four rowers on a single boat who will have oars on alternative stroke and bow sides. The rowers have to ensure they sync with each other perfectly to ensure they make the most of each swing.
The event's format is the exact same as the coxless pair event where only one of the thirteen quartets fail to make it to the finals of the event.
Coxed Eight
The coxed eight event is possible the most entertaining rowing event in the Olympics. The boat has nine members on board – eight rowers and one coxswain. The latter sits at the far end of the boat guiding the rowers to ensure they're on the right track and ensuring that they keep up optimum performance throughout the two kilometres.
The tournament format for the coxed eight event includes the participation of only eight teams. There are two heats with four teams each. The top team from each heat go straight into the A finals while the others six teams take part in the repechage event.
From the repechage event, the top four teams head into the A finals while the other two teams take part in the B finals – which will only have two teams fighting for world ranking slots.
Germany have pretty much dominated this event over the past few Olympics and will fight to keep the same going in Rio but will face competition from the other best teams including Canada, Great Britain and the United States.
