Rowing at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games:

Great Britain’s [Steven Redgrave] and [Matthew Pinsent] were the reigning World Champions in the men’s coxless pairs and favorites to win the event at the 1992 Summer Olympics. This duo had also won the 1991 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta, while Redgrave was also a defending Olympic champion. East Germany had won the 1989 and 1990 World Championships and, although the reunification of Germany had altered their position on the international rowing scene, they nonetheless sent the strong duo of [Peter Hoeltzenbein] and [Colin von Ettingshausen] to Barcelona. Also notable were Austria’s [Karl Sinzinger, Jr.] and [Hermann Bauer], winners of the 1990 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup.

The Germans and the Britons won their heats in the opening round and were joined in this feat by Belgians [Jaak Van Driessche] and [Luc Goiris] and Croatians [Zlatko Bužina] and [Marko Perinović]. Great Britain and Germany then met in the semi-finals, with the former conquering the latter in Olympic record time, while the other heat was won by the French pair of [Michel Andrieux] and [Jean-Christophe Rolland]. The final was not close: Redgrave and Pinsent won gold in Olympic record time, nearly five seconds ahead of Germany, who took home silver medals. Slovenia, represented by 1991 World runners-up [Iztok Čop] and [Denis Žvegelj], took bronze, giving it one of its first Olympic rowing medals as an independent nation (the other being bronze in the men’s coxless fours).