The stand-out performance from the GB women’s rowing team at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul was the coxed four pulling off an epic row-through in their repechage to qualify for the final. This was a significant achievement as it was the first time a GB women’s crew had been in a final ‘when everyone was there’ – there had been boycotts at the previous two games (by the Eastern bloc at Los Angeles in 1984, and by most of the West at Moscow in 1980), and neither GB crew had reached the final at the first Olympics to include women’s rowing in 1976.
But alongside this triumph, there was bitter disappointment for most of the GB eight which was not selected to go to Seoul.
Meanwhile at the World Championships in Milan, the lightweight double of Gill Bond and Caroline Lucas won the bronze medal, despite living and working in different countries.
Meet the rowers
Gill Bond was one of several oarswomen at this time who first represented GB at openweight but made the switch to lightweight when that category was introduced officially in 1985. Gill won silver and bronze medals at the World Championships before embarking on a series of gruelling, long-distance rowing challenges to raise money for charity. Read more >>
Carol-Ann Wood represented GB in the single scull when test events for women were included in what was then called the FISA Championships for Lightweights in 1984. She single or double sculled for GB for the following four years, winning the silver medal at the World Championships in 1986 with Gill Bond, and also represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games. Read more >>
Sally Andreae was a loyal, one-club woman as a rower and that club was Thames RC, where she went from beginner to Olympian in four years. Read more >>
The photo at the top of this page is © Fiona Land.
Rowing Story 