The men's coxless pair (M2-) competition at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

took place at Lake Casitas in

Ventura County, California Ventura County () is a County (United States), county located in Southern California, the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, Ca ...

, United States. It was held from 30 July to 5 August and the outcome was wide open due to the Eastern Bloc boycott and thus the absence of the dominating team from East Germany. The event was won by the team from

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Background

East Germany had won the coxless pair competition at every Summer Olympics since the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Mexico 1968 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico. These were the first Ol ...

in Mexico, and they were the reigning world champion. The Soviet Union had won silver at the last Summer Olympics in this event, had won the 1981 World Rowing Championships, and had won silver in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

. With both nations absent due to the Soviet Bloc boycott, the only competing nation that had won recent world championships was Norway, which had won the title in 1982. The competition was thus regarded as wide open.

Previous M2- competitions

Results

Heats

The heats of the opening round were rowed on 31 July. The first three of every heat would progress to the semi-finals, whilst the other teams would go to the repechage.

Heat 1

Heat 2

Heat 3

Repechage

The repechage was rowed on 1 August. The first three would progress to the semi-finals, whilst the other two teams were eliminated. The Swiss team changed seats in the repechage and then maintained the new configuration for the rest of the competition.

Semi-finals

The semi-finals were rowed on 2 August. The first three would progress to the A final, whilst the other teams would go to the B final.

Heat 1

The Germans and the Dutch swapped seats in their semi-final and maintained the new configuration in their finals.

Heat 2

Finals

B final

The B final was rowed on 3 August.

A final

The A final was rowed on 5 August. Spain was a surprise medallist, and as of

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, their silver medal is the only Olympic rowing medal that the nation has ever won.

Notes

References

*
Volume 1 Part 1

Volume 1 Part 2

Volume 1 Part 3
*
Volume 2 Part 1

Volume 2 Part 2

Volume 2 Part 3
(page 469 onwards) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rowing at the 1984 Summer Olympics - Men's coxless pair Men's coxless pair Men's events at the 1984 Summer Olympics