Who is the greatest rower of all time based on Olympic Games performances? We have used a weighted total medal count of each male and female rower from all modern Olympic Games to rank their overall performance, using data from all Olympics including the Paris 2024 Games.

The best all-time performing rower at the Olympic Games is Romanian Elisabeta Lipă who won eight medals (5 of them gold) between 1984–2000. The highest ranked male is British rower Steve Redgrave also with five gold medals. See the table below to see how other athletes have ranked.

See also the best athlete from each sport, and the best overall.

Top Olympic Games Rowers

Here are the top-ranked athletes from the sport of Rowing for performances at all Olympiads, using the Topend Sports Weighted Ranking System to order the athletes, awarding points for both gold (6 points) and other medals (silver 2 pts, bronze 1 pt).

Table: The Top Ranked Athletes from Rowing at the Olympic Games (including 2024)

rank name country gender Gold Silver Bronze total
medals		 rating
1 Elisabeta Lipă  Romania F 5 2 1 8 35
=2 Georgeta Damian Romania F 5 0 1 6 31
=2 Steve Redgrave Great Britain M 5 0 1 6 31
4 Doina Ignat Romania F 4 1 1 6 27
=5 Kathrin Boron Germany F 4 0 1 5 25
=5 Viorica Susanu Romania F 4 0 1 5 25
7 Matthew Pinsent Great Britain M 4 0 0 4 24

notes: initial data from wikipedia of multiple Olympic gold medalists (with at least 4 gold medals, including results from 2024). For the ranking order, we have used the Topend Sports Weighted Ranking System.