Rowing at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's double sculls

Rowing at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Single sculls		men		women
Coxless pair		men		women
Double sculls		men		women
Lwt double sculls		men		women
Coxless four		men
Quadruple sculls		men		women
Eight		men		women
Lwt coxless four		men

Women's double sculls competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was held between August 9 and 16 at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.

This rowing event is a double scull event, meaning that each boat is propelled by a pair of rowers. The "scull" portion means that each rower uses two oars, one on each side of the boat; this contrasts with sweep rowing in which each rower has one oar and rows on only one side. The competition consists of multiple rounds. Finals were held to determine the placing of each boat; these finals were given letters with those nearer to the beginning of the alphabet meaning a better ranking.

During the first round two heats were held. The top boat in each heat advanced directly to the A final, with all others going to the repechage. The two repechage heats filled out the rest of the finals, with the best two boats in each repechage heat advancing to the A final and the remaining two boats in each repechage going to the B final.

Each final determined a set of rankings. The A final determined the medals, along with the rest of the places through 6th. The B final gave the rest of the rankings, through 10th place.

In the A Final, Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell of New Zealand defended their Double Sculls gold medal from the 2004 Summer Olympics in a highly competitive race which saw them beat the German crew by just 1/100th of a second (7:07.32 versus 7:07.33), and the third-placing British crew by just 0.23 seconds. This was the first time in Olympic history that the Women's Double Sculls title had been successfully defended.

Schedule

All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8)

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Georgina Evers-Swindell and Caroline Evers-Swindell (NZL)	Annekatrin Thiele and Christiane Huth (GER)	Elise Laverick and Anna Bebington (GBR)

Results

Heats

• Qualification Rules: 1->FA, 2..->R

Heat 1

Rank	Rowers	Country	Time	Notes
1	Georgina Evers-Swindell, Caroline Evers-Swindell	New Zealand	7:03.92	FA
2	Annekatrin Thiele, Christiane Huth	Germany	7:09.06	R
3	Megan Kalmoe, Ellen Tomek	United States	7:11.17	R
4	Ionelia Neacsu, Roxana Gabriela Cogianu	Romania	7:12.17	R
5	Kateryna Tarasenko, Yana Dementieva	Ukraine	7:25.03	R

Heat 2

Rank	Rowers	Country	Time	Notes
1	Li Qin, Tian Liang	China	7:03.13	FA
2	Jitka Antošová, Gabriela Vařeková	Czech Republic	7:04.23	R
3	Elise Laverick, Anna Bebington	Great Britain	7:08.65	R
4	Catriona Sens, Sonia Mills	Australia	7:13.25	R
5	Laura Schiavone, Elisabetta Sancassani	Italy	7:30.25	R

Repechages

• Qualification Rules: 1-2>FA, 3..->FB

Repechage 1

Rank	Rowers	Country	Time	Notes
1	Elise Laverick, Anna Bebington	Great Britain	6:54.92	FA
2	Annekatrin Thiele, Christiane Huth	Germany	6:55.96	FA
3	Ionelia Neacsu, Roxana Gabriela Cogianu	Romania	7:01.69	FB
4	Laura Schiavone, Elisabetta Sancassani	Italy	7:08.00	FB

Repechage 2

Rank	Rowers	Country	Time	Notes
1	Megan Kalmoe, Ellen Tomek	United States	6:58.84	FA
2	Jitka Antošová, Gabriela Vařeková	Czech Republic	7:00.75	FA
3	Catriona Sens, Sonia Mills	Australia	7:04.30	FB
4	Kateryna Tarasenko, Yana Dementieva	Ukraine	7:06.77	FB

Final B

Rank	Rowers	Country	Time	Notes
1	Kateryna Tarasenko, Yana Dementieva	Ukraine	7:17.82
2	Catriona Sens, Sonia Mills	Australia	7:19.73
3	Ionelia Neacsu, Roxana Gabriela Cogianu	Romania	7:20.99
4	Laura Schiavone, Elisabetta Sancassani	Italy	7:29.22

Final A

Rank	Rowers	Country	Time	Notes
	Georgina Evers-Swindell, Caroline Evers-Swindell	New Zealand	7:07.32
	Annekatrin Thiele, Christiane Huth	Germany	7:07.33
	Elise Laverick, Anna Bebington	Great Britain	7:07.55
4	Li Qin, Tian Liang	China	7:15.85
5	Megan Kalmoe, Ellen Tomek	United States	7:17.53
6	Miroslava Knapková, Gabriela Vařeková	Czech Republic	7:25.09

References

• NYT Olympic Report