American women have excelled in rowing. The first time they competed in the Olympics, in 1976, the eight-person team won bronze. The women’s eight went on to win gold in 1984, the next games in which the United States participated.

This four-stamp set commemorates the sport and American women’s excellence in it.

The sports world largely excluded women until the social movements of the 1960s opened the door for dramatic change. In 1972, Congress amended federal education law by adding Title IX, which prohibited gender-based discrimination in federally funded education, including athletics. Although some colleges and universities reacted slowly, women pressed them into opening up varsity sports and disbursing funding equitably.

Almost overnight, American women drew international attention: the celebrated “Red Rose Crew” won silver in the 1975 World Rowing Championship. The 1975 and 1976 champion teams both drew heavily from Ivy League schools with long-time men’s rowing programs, but also from the University of Wisconsin as well as from California.

Wisconsin’s Badger women had rowed since the late 19th century but were first allowed to participate in intercollegiate competitions post-Title IX. In 1975, the Wisconsin women’s varsity eight team won the National Collegiate Rowing Championship.

The more traditional Ivy Leagues, some of which were just opening their enrollments to women, took longer to adapt to the new mandates. The men’s teams at Harvard and Yale had been racing each other since the 1850s, and some university administrators could not fathom women in such a strenuous and macho sport — until they started winning big.

In eight-person “sweep” rowing, the rowers sit on sliding seats, facing the stern, or rear, of the “shell” (boat), and each crew member wields one oar for four per side. In the stern sits a ninth person, the coxswain, who steers the shell with a rudder and, as the only person facing forward, serves as the crew’s eyes, shouting commands and encouragement.

Sitting directly across from the coxswain, and facing her, is the “stroke,” the crew’s leader. She sets the pace, combining ferocious strength with a fine sense of rhythm. As one, the eight lean forward to dip their oars (the “catch”), straighten their legs and push back as they pull the oars through the water (the “drive”), raise the oars from the water (the “release”), and turn them parallel to the water to maneuver them back for the next catch (the “feather”), over and over like a machine.

Competitive rowing also includes “sculling,” in which the rowers — one, two or four in a shell — use two oars, as well as two- and four-person sweep teams. Since 1984, women have brought home gold, silver or bronze medals in at least one of the rowing categories at each Olympics — except 2021. The eight-woman sweep team began a glorious second winning streak in 2004, attaining silver that year and gold in 2008, 2012, and 2016.