Our ranking of the 15 best rowers of all time, led by Steve Redgrave, Elisabeta Lipa and Matthew Pinsent, with Olympic medals and world titles.
Each profile lists boat class, country, birth date and the medals that matter, followed by what made the rower stand out. Below the ranking you will find the best rower in each boat class and the names that just missed the cut.
How We Ranked the Rowers
- Olympic titles: gold medals at the Games count most, because rowing peaks every four years.
- World titles: World Rowing Championship wins show who dominated between the Olympics.
- Longevity: how many Olympic cycles the rower stayed at the top.
- Range: success across different boats, from the single scull to the eight.
Rowers from the 1920s to the 2020s are judged against the fields they raced, which is why Jack Beresford and Vyacheslav Ivanov stand next to modern crews. The order is our own judgment, not an official one.
The 15 Best Rowers at a Glance
| # | Rower | Boat class | Career |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steve Redgrave | Sweep (coxed four, coxless pair, coxless four) | 1984 to 2000 |
| 2 | Elisabeta Lipa | Sculling and sweep (single, double, eight) | 1984 to 2004 |
| 3 | Matthew Pinsent | Sweep (coxless pair, coxless four) | 1989 to 2004 |
| 4 | Kathrin Boron | Sculling (double sculls, quadruple sculls) | 1989 to 2008 |
| 5 | Georgeta Damian | Sweep (coxless pair, eight) | 1997 to 2012 |
| 6 | Hamish Bond | Sweep (coxless pair, eight) | 2007 to 2021 |
| 7 | Pertti Karppinen | Sculling (single sculls) | 1976 to 1987 |
| 8 | Vyacheslav Ivanov | Sculling (single sculls) | 1956 to 1967 |
| 9 | Mahé Drysdale | Sculling (single sculls) | 2005 to 2016 |
| 10 | Eric Murray | Sweep (coxless pair, coxed pair) | 2007 to 2016 |
| 11 | Ekaterina Karsten | Sculling (single sculls) | 1991 to 2017 |
| 12 | Jack Beresford | Sculling and sweep (single, double, four, eight) | 1920 to 1936 |
| 13 | Drew Ginn | Sweep (coxless four, coxless pair) | 1996 to 2012 |
| 14 | Katherine Grainger | Sculling and sweep (double, quad, pair) | 1997 to 2016 |
| 15 | Helen Glover | Sweep (coxless pair, coxless four) | 2010 to 2024 |
#1 Steve Redgrave
- 🚣 Boat class: Sweep (coxed four, coxless pair, coxless four)
- 🎂 Born: March 23, 1962, in Marlow, England
- 🌍 Country: Great Britain
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 5× Olympic champion (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000), Olympic bronze (1988), 9× world champion, 3× Commonwealth Games champion (1986)
Redgrave won gold at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000, in three different boats: the coxed four in Los Angeles, the coxless pair in Seoul, Barcelona and Atlanta, and the coxless four in Sydney. He is the only man to win gold at five Games in an endurance sport.
After Atlanta he told a television interviewer that anyone who found him near a boat again had his permission to shoot him, then resumed training four months later. He did it while managing ulcerative colitis, diagnosed in 1992, and type 2 diabetes, diagnosed in 1997. Three of his Olympic golds came alongside Matthew Pinsent.
#2 Elisabeta Lipa
- 🚣 Boat class: Sculling and sweep (single, double, eight)
- 🎂 Born: October 26, 1964, in Cândești, Romania
- 🌍 Country: Romania
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 5× Olympic champion (1984 double sculls, 1992 single sculls, 1996, 2000 and 2004 eight), 2× Olympic silver, Olympic bronze, 8 Olympic medals in total
Lipa is the most decorated rower in Olympic history with eight medals, five of them gold. She won her first title in the double sculls in Los Angeles at 19 and her last in the Romanian eight in Athens at 39, a gap of 20 years that is a record among rowers.
She is the only rower to win Olympic gold in both the single scull and the eight, the two most prestigious events in the sport. After retiring she moved into administration: she served as Romania’s Minister of Youth and Sport from 2015 to 2017.
#3 Matthew Pinsent
- 🚣 Boat class: Sweep (coxless pair, coxless four)
- 🎂 Born: October 10, 1970, in Holt, England
- 🌍 Country: Great Britain
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 4× Olympic champion (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004), 10× world champion, 2× Boat Race winner with Oxford (1990, 1991)
Pinsent won four consecutive Olympic titles, two in the coxless pair with Steve Redgrave and two in the coxless four. He added ten world titles, including both the coxless and the coxed pair in Lucerne in 2001 with James Cracknell.
His fourth gold in Athens came in one of the closest finishes in Olympic rowing: Britain beat world champions Canada in the coxless four by a fraction of a second. He retired later that year and has since worked as a broadcaster for the BBC.
#4 Kathrin Boron
- 🚣 Boat class: Sculling (double sculls, quadruple sculls)
- 🎂 Born: November 4, 1969, in Eisenhüttenstadt, East Germany
- 🌍 Country: East Germany, Germany
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 4× Olympic champion (1992, 2000 double sculls, 1996, 2004 quadruple sculls), Olympic bronze (2008), 8× world champion
Boron won Olympic gold at four straight Games, alternating between the double sculls in 1992 and 2000 and the quadruple sculls in 1996 and 2004. Her first world title came for East Germany in 1989, her last for a unified Germany in 2001.
She raced at a fifth Olympics in Beijing in 2008 and took bronze in the quad at 38. Eight world titles and five Olympic medals made her the benchmark for women’s sculling crews of the 1990s.
#5 Georgeta Damian
- 🚣 Boat class: Sweep (coxless pair, eight)
- 🎂 Born: April 14, 1976, in Botoșani, Romania
- 🌍 Country: Romania
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 5× Olympic champion (2000 pair and eight, 2004 pair and eight, 2008 pair), Olympic bronze (2008 eight), 5× world champion
Damian won two gold medals on the same programme at both the Sydney and Athens Olympics, in the coxless pair and in the Romanian eight, then defended the pair title in Beijing in 2008. That gives her five Olympic golds, level with Redgrave and Lipa.
She was part of the Romanian eight that won three world titles in a row from 1997 to 1999 and added pair world titles in 2001 and 2002 with Viorica Susanu. She has also competed under her married name, Georgeta Andrunache.
#6 Hamish Bond
- 🚣 Boat class: Sweep (coxless pair, eight)
- 🎂 Born: February 13, 1986, in Dunedin, New Zealand
- 🌍 Country: New Zealand
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 3× Olympic champion (2012, 2016 coxless pair, 2020 eight), 8× world champion, Commonwealth Games bronze in cycling time trial (2018)
With Eric Murray, Bond formed the most dominant pair in rowing history. They won six consecutive world titles in the coxless pair from 2009 to 2015 and the Olympic titles of 2012 and 2016, and they were not beaten in the pair in that period.
After Rio he switched to road cycling and won time trial bronze at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. He then returned to the boat and won a third Olympic gold in the New Zealand eight at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
#7 Pertti Karppinen
- 🚣 Boat class: Sculling (single sculls)
- 🎂 Born: February 17, 1953, in Askainen, Finland
- 🌍 Country: Finland
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 3× Olympic champion in single sculls (1976, 1980, 1984), 2× world champion (1979, 1985)
Karppinen won the Olympic single sculls three times in a row, in Montreal, Moscow and Los Angeles. Only Vyacheslav Ivanov had done that before him, and nobody has done it since.
At 2.01 metres he raced in a distinctive way: he often sat several lengths down early and then overhauled the field with a long final sprint. His rivalry with West German Peter-Michael Kolbe defined men’s sculling for a decade.
#8 Vyacheslav Ivanov
- 🚣 Boat class: Sculling (single sculls)
- 🎂 Born: July 30, 1938, in Moscow, Soviet Union (died August 5, 2024)
- 🌍 Country: Soviet Union
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 3× Olympic champion in single sculls (1956, 1960, 1964), world champion (1962), 4× European champion
Ivanov won the Olympic single sculls in Melbourne at 18 and defended it in Rome and Tokyo, the first man to take the event three times. He also won the first World Rowing Championships in 1962.
Between Olympics he collected four European titles and four wins in the Gold Cup Challenge in Philadelphia. He died in Moscow in 2024 at 86.
#9 Mahé Drysdale
- 🚣 Boat class: Sculling (single sculls)
- 🎂 Born: November 19, 1978, in Melbourne, Australia
- 🌍 Country: New Zealand
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 2× Olympic champion in single sculls (2012, 2016), Olympic bronze (2008), 5× world champion, 5× New Zealand Sportsman of the Year
Drysdale won five world titles in the single scull between 2005 and 2011 but went into the 2008 final in Beijing badly ill. He took bronze and had to be carried away from the finish on a raft. Four years later he won gold in London.
His defence in Rio in 2016 was decided by a photo finish, with Drysdale ahead of Croatia’s Damir Martin by part of a bow ball. Born in Australia to New Zealand parents, he was elected mayor of Tauranga in July 2024.
#10 Eric Murray
- 🚣 Boat class: Sweep (coxless pair, coxed pair)
- 🎂 Born: May 6, 1982, in Hastings, New Zealand
- 🌍 Country: New Zealand
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 2× Olympic champion in coxless pair (2012, 2016), 8× world champion, world best times in the coxless pair and coxed pair
Murray was the other half of the Kiwi Pair with Hamish Bond. Their unbeaten run in the coxless pair started in 2009 and ended only with their retirement from the boat after Rio.
He won eight world titles in total: six in the coxless pair, one in the coxless four in 2007 and one in the coxed pair in 2014. The world best times he set with Bond in the coxless pair in 2012 and the coxed pair in 2014 still stood years later.
#11 Ekaterina Karsten
- 🚣 Boat class: Sculling (single sculls)
- 🎂 Born: June 2, 1972, in Asechyna, Belarus
- 🌍 Country: Unified Team (1992), Belarus
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 2× Olympic champion in single sculls (1996, 2000), Olympic silver (2004), 2× Olympic bronze (1992, 2008), 6× world champion in single sculls, 7× Olympian
Karsten won the Olympic single sculls in Atlanta and Sydney and stayed on the podium in Athens and Beijing. Her six world titles in the single span twelve years, from 1997 to 2009.
She first raced at the Olympics in 1992 for the Unified Team, taking bronze in the quad under her maiden name Khadatovich, and went on to compete at seven Games.
#12 Jack Beresford
- 🚣 Boat class: Sculling and sweep (single, double, four, eight)
- 🎂 Born: January 1, 1899, in Chiswick, England (died December 3, 1977)
- 🌍 Country: Great Britain
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 3× Olympic champion (1924 single sculls, 1932 coxless four, 1936 double sculls), 2× Olympic silver (1920, 1928), 4× Diamond Challenge Sculls winner
Beresford won medals at five consecutive Olympics from 1920 to 1936, a record in rowing until Steve Redgrave won his sixth medal in 2000. He took gold in the single in 1924, in the coxless four in 1932 and in the double in 1936.
The last of those came in Berlin with Dick Southwood: they were a length down on the German favourites and passed them in the final 200 metres. He had also served in the First World War, where he was wounded, before his rowing career took off.
#13 Drew Ginn
- 🚣 Boat class: Sweep (coxless four, coxless pair)
- 🎂 Born: November 20, 1974, in Australia
- 🌍 Country: Australia
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 3× Olympic champion (1996 coxless four, 2004, 2008 coxless pair), Olympic silver (2012), 5× world champion
Ginn joined the Oarsome Foursome and won Olympic gold with them in Atlanta in 1996. A severe back injury forced him out of the boat before the home Olympics in Sydney in 2000.
He came back to win the coxless pair in Athens with James Tomkins and again in Beijing with Duncan Free, then took silver in the four in London at 37. Few rowers have won Olympic gold twelve years apart in sweep boats.
#14 Katherine Grainger
- 🚣 Boat class: Sculling and sweep (double, quad, pair)
- 🎂 Born: November 12, 1975, in Glasgow, Scotland
- 🌍 Country: Great Britain
- 🏆 Career Highlights: Olympic champion in double sculls (2012), 4× Olympic silver (2000, 2004, 2008, 2016), 6× world champion
Grainger won silver at three straight Olympics before she finally took gold in the double sculls with Anna Watkins in London in 2012. She returned from retirement and added a fourth silver in Rio at 40, for five Olympic medals in total.
She earned a PhD in law from King’s College London alongside her rowing. After her career she chaired UK Sport from 2017 to 2025, became chair of the British Olympic Association and was made a life peer in 2026.
#15 Helen Glover
- 🚣 Boat class: Sweep (coxless pair, coxless four)
- 🎂 Born: June 17, 1986, in Truro, England
- 🌍 Country: Great Britain
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 2× Olympic champion in coxless pair (2012, 2016), Olympic silver (2024 coxless four), 3× world champion
Glover only took up rowing in 2008 through a talent identification scheme and four years later won Britain’s first ever Olympic rowing gold for women, in the pair with Heather Stanning in London. The two defended the title in Rio in 2016.
She stepped away to start a family, returned in 2021 as a mother of three and finished fourth in Tokyo as the first mother to row for Britain, then won silver in the coxless four in Paris in 2024 at 38.
Best Rower in Each Boat Class
If you want one name per boat, these are our picks from the ranking. For what each seat in a boat does, see our guide to rowing positions and roles.
| Boat class | Rower | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Men’s single sculls | Pertti Karppinen | Three straight Olympic titles from 1976 to 1984 |
| Women’s single sculls | Ekaterina Karsten | Two Olympic and six world titles in the single |
| Men’s coxless pair | Steve Redgrave | Three Olympic golds in the pair, 1988 to 1996 |
| Women’s coxless pair | Georgeta Damian | Olympic pair champion in 2000, 2004 and 2008 |
| Men’s coxless four | Matthew Pinsent | Olympic champion in the four in 2000 and 2004 |
| Women’s quadruple sculls | Kathrin Boron | Quad gold in 1996 and 2004 plus two in the double |
| Women’s eight | Elisabeta Lipa | Three Olympic titles in the Romanian eight |
| Men’s double sculls | Jack Beresford | Came from behind to win in Berlin in 1936 |
Honorable Mentions
Seven more rowers who came close and could make the list on another day.
- Martin and Valent Sinković: Croatian brothers who won Olympic gold in the double sculls in 2016 and in the coxless pair in 2020 and 2024.
- Olaf Tufte: Norway’s Olympic single sculls champion in 2004 and 2008, who raced at seven Games and died in July 2026 at 50.
- James Cracknell: Won Olympic gold in the coxless four in 2000 and 2004 and six world titles.
- Marnie McBean: Won three Olympic golds for Canada, in the pair and eight in 1992 and the double sculls in 1996.
- Ondřej Synek: Czech single sculler with five world titles and Olympic medals in 2008, 2012 and 2016.
- Heather Stanning: Won the Olympic coxless pair with Helen Glover in 2012 and 2016 while serving as a British Army officer.
- Emma Twigg: New Zealand single sculler who won Olympic gold in Tokyo at her fourth Games and silver in Paris in 2024.
More About Rowing
- History of rowing
- Rowing positions and roles
- Rowing lingo and slang
- Rowing equipment list
- Common rowing injuries
- Rowing quiz
- Rowing Instagram captions
FAQ
Who is the best rower of all time?
In our ranking it is Steve Redgrave, ahead of Elisabeta Lipa and Matthew Pinsent. Redgrave won gold at five consecutive Olympics from 1984 to 2000 and nine world titles.
Who are the top 10 greatest rowers of all time?
Our top 10 is Steve Redgrave, Elisabeta Lipa, Matthew Pinsent, Kathrin Boron, Georgeta Damian, Hamish Bond, Pertti Karppinen, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Mahé Drysdale and Eric Murray.
Who has won the most Olympic medals in rowing?
Elisabeta Lipa of Romania with eight: five gold, two silver and one bronze between 1984 and 2004. Steve Redgrave, Lipa and Georgeta Damian share the record of five Olympic golds.
Who is the best female rower of all time?
Elisabeta Lipa, the most decorated rower in Olympic history. Georgeta Damian, Kathrin Boron and Ekaterina Karsten are the other leading names.
Who is the greatest single sculler ever?
Pertti Karppinen and Vyacheslav Ivanov are the only men to win the Olympic single sculls three times. Among women, Ekaterina Karsten won two Olympic and six world titles in the single.
Who were the Kiwi Pair?
Eric Murray and Hamish Bond of New Zealand. They won the Olympic coxless pair in 2012 and 2016 and six straight world titles from 2009 to 2015 without losing a race in the pair.
