Why Rowing is The Sexiest Sport
©Jan Andersen 2002
Have you ever seen a male rower whip up a lump of phlegm in his throat and spit it out in the middle of a race, or have a juvenile altercation with a member of an opposing team? I'm sure that some will say that it does happen, but nevertheless it never develops into a public furore. When you compare rowing to a sport like football, which seems to attract an array of unsavoury behaviour, both from the players and the fans, you can clearly see the sophistication of the aforementioned water sport. Rowing conjures up images of balmy summer days by a river, fine wine and Perrier, incredibly tall, burly, university-educated men in body-hugging attire, with beads of water glistening alluringly on their muscular thighs and the sound of oar blades slipping through water.
Of course, I'm not forgetting that rowing is also a female sport that attracts some very athletic and talented participants, whom we shall hopefully see achieve the same success in future years as our male team members.
When you contrast footballing terms and actions such as dribbling, kicking, spitting, swearing, attacking, fighting and rebellion, to the seductive rowing terminology of stroke, slide, layback, hands on and slip, it's easy to understand why rowing is, in my opinion, the sexiest sport in Britain.
You only need to watch the footage of the Sydney Olympics, when the British coxless four flexed their glistening muscles as they propelled their way to a victorious gold medal, to see where the attraction lies. Whilst it might not be regarded as the ideal spectator sport if you are sat on a riverbank and catch the tiniest glimpse of a team as they glide past, as a TV viewer, you can enjoy every stage of the race in its full splendour.
Despite being one of the few sports at which the British excel, it is only since the Sydney Olympics that rowing has been thrown into the spotlight and attracted the interest of a wider audience. However, despite the outstanding success of the Coxless 4 and, in particular that of Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent over the previous fifteen years, had the team not won gold, would anyone have been interested?
The sad fact is that however appalling a British football team performs, it still remains at the top of the popularity stakes and the fans still place football players on a pedestal. They can lose the World Cup, The European Cup, The FA Cup, be relegated from their division and still retain a loyal following. Players can bring the game into disrepute by childishly kicking out at rival team members, or becoming involved in drunken brawls outside nightclubs. The rowdy "supporters", albeit a minority, can initiate riots and be convicted of criminal offences, including grievous bodily harm, but still football basks in the grandeur of media attention and its players retain their God-like status.
Before the Sydney Olympics, how many people would have said, "Matthew who? James who? Tim who? Steve Redgrave..oh, isn't he that chappy who's won a gold medal in something - swimming, water-skiing, or is it sailing?" Actually, he's won 5 consecutive Olympic gold medals for Britain, nine World Championship gold medals and three Commonwealth golds. Matthew Pinsent has three Olympic golds and seven World Championships golds amongst his many successes and both James Cracknell and Tim Foster have notched up more major wins over the past decade that the England football squad have in a century. England has only won the World Cup once and yet everyone still talks about that victorious day in 1966, because it is the only success on which they can focus.
Maybe if rowing fans went on the rampage each time their team failed to win an event, hurling paving slabs, bottles and flaming missiles, rowing would be a more high profile sport. Frankly, I feel hugely embarrassed for our nation when I witness football hooligans creating mayhem and destruction just because their team has lost a game. Oddly, however, football remains the nation's favourite spectator sport, whilst rowing is relegated to the bottom of the interest stakes until the next major achievement, or the annual University Boat Race, despite bestowing more honour upon England than a bunch of uncouth and illiterate footballers ever has.
Even the complex physics associated with rowing makes it intellectually sexy. It's not just a matter of clambering into a boat and using brute strength to propel the vessel across the water. You have to consider basic physics such as kinetic energy, speed variation, resistance, gearing, centre of mass, for example, along with weight, stream depth and Ergometers. The most difficult aspect of football is understanding the offside rule and the aggression of some of the half-witted fans.
We want to be proud of our nation, not to cringe with embarrassment every time we see televised reports of rioting football thugs, so why not support and sponsor a sport that represents culture, style, refinement and, above all, success? After all, rowing is without a doubt Britain's sexiest sport.
Links:
http://www.leander.co.uk/ Site of the Leander Club, which has been home to Olympic giants Sir Steve Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent, James Cracknell and Tim Foster, guided by a world-class coaching team under Jurgen Gröbler and Mark Banks
http://www.coxless4.com/ (The official site for the British Oarsome Foursome. Now closed but still viewable from a reference point of view)
