[TenOfThem]

Watching the rowing, in particular, the crowd are loud and the GB teams appear to respond

However

If you are in another boat surely the crowd noise and excitement would have a similar impact anyway

[drummer]

Yes definitely, home advantage and morale is a key factor to winning.

[TenOfThem]

(Original post by drummer)
Yes definitely, home advantage and morale is a key factor to winning.

You see ... that is what I thought

But the cheering is still so loud when watching a race with no GB teams in it ... who benefits from that

And are the words discernible ... I know we could all hear "wiggo" yesterday but this seems like generic cheering

[Bobo1234]

As someone who rows (well, coxes) it's amazing having a crowd there when you race. It doesn't matter that not all the noise is for you, the fact that some of it is feels great and spurs you on to try harder (and it's a great motivational factor, so I've been told, to have your cox yell at you that all the yelling is for you- when you're exerting yourself as much as possible as a rower you don't have the energy to think logically about the fact that it's not anyway).

[TenOfThem]

(Original post by Bobo1234)
As someone who rows (well, coxes) it's amazing having a crowd there when you race. It doesn't matter that not all the noise is for you, the fact that some of it is feels great and spurs you on to try harder (and it's a great motivational factor, so I've been told, to have your cox yell at you that all the yelling is for you- when you're exerting yourself as much as possible as a rower you don't have the energy to think logically about the fact that it's not anyway).

You see ... this was my thinking

[restoration]

(Original post by TenOfThem)
Watching the rowing, in particular, the crowd are loud and the GB teams appear to respond

However

If you are in another boat surely the crowd noise and excitement would have a similar impact anyway

I think it does I don't row mind or really do a lot of sport anymore but act and guess the same can be said to being on a stage, if the crowds clapping at the end of a scene or cheering etc is a good motivator for me to do better so I guess it is the same with rowing.

[notnek]

As with most sports, a competitor may not be able to hear who the crowd are cheering for but just knowing that everyone wants you to win creates a psychological advantage. Some competitors are able to use opposition crowds to their advantage but the average sportsman will perform better with a home crowd behind them than away from home.

However, I think the home advantage has less of an impact at the Olympics as it does with something like Premier League football. Apart from crowd support, home advantage in football can be attributed to many things including ground/area familiarity, hostility towards the opposition, referee bias etc., none of which are present in Olympic rowing.

[pop101]

It can. It gives a morale boost. It's good, mentally, but can make some athletes a bit overconfident.

[Sternumator]

Competitiors at the olympics will be trying their hardest anyway so I don't think the crowd makes much difference. World class rowers aren't going to come into the last 500m not giving it their full effort and when they hear the crowd think 'oh I better actually try now'. All the rowers row has hard as the physically can and they are probably concentrating so hard that they don't even notice the crowd.

[zaliack]

I think having a home crowd may also be disadvantagous sometimes. It may encourage you to push yourself more, but sometimes that'll backfire when you need to do a final push. In the mens 8, the rowers knew they had to keep up with the Germans in the first 500m, but because of the crowd cheering, it seemed like they wanted to just keep pushing themselves. The crowds then cheered less once the germans got ahead again, and their speed also decreased, until they finished 3rd because they didn't have the energy to do a final push.

[Cheese_Monster]

If it were, surely we might have won a few more medals?