While most of our publications have been focused on Olympic rowers, we frequently receive questions about Para-rowing. The amount of the data we have on Para-rowers is not large, so we present a case study here on the comparison of Olympic and Para-rowers in singles. Four single scullers of International level, two from Olympic categories and two Para-rowers (male and female in each category), were tested with the BioRow system. The Olympic athletes were specifically selected to have similar body height and weight to the Para-rowers (only 3-5% difference). The rigging was very different: inboard was 26% shorter for Para-rowers, oar length - 12% and span - 15% shorter. This means that the actual static oar gearing was 28% heavier for Para-rowers than for the Olympic rowers (2.665 and 2.081 respectively). To have the same gearing as Olympic rowers, Para-rowers would need to have a 36cm shorter oar length (about 2.16m), with the same inboard as before. The average rowing speed was 18.7% slower in Para-rowers - a smaller difference than between World best times (26%). So, the Para-rowers performed relatively better than the Olympic rowers in this case study.
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