Lightweight rowing (Lwt for short) is a special category of rowing where limits are placed on the maximum weight of competitors. The rationale is that larger, taller people have a small but significant physical advantage and tend to dominate the sport. Having a lightweight category gives average sized individuals the ability to compete against their peers, but rowers who are tall and thin generally have an advantage over those who are shorter but broader.
At international level for crew boats the limits are:
- Men: Crew average 70 kg (154 lb) - no rower over 72.5 kg (159 lb)
- Women: Crew average 57 kg (125 lb) - no one over 59 kg (130 lb)
For single sculls the limits are 72.5 kg and 59 kg for men and women respectively.
- Coxwains have a specified minimum weight of 55kg when racing with male rowers and 50kgs in women's boat.
According to FISA, this weight category was introduced "to encourage more universality in the sport especially among nations with less statuesque people".
The first lightweight events were added to the World Championships in 1974 for men and 1985 for women. Lightweight rowing was added to the Olympics in 1996 but this came under threat in 2002 when the Programme Commission of the IOC recommended that, outside combat sports and weightlifting, there should not be weight category events. The Executive Board overturned this recommendation and lightweight rowing continues at the Olympics. There are three Olympic-class lightweight events: Men's Coxless Fours, Men's Double Sculls and Women's Double Sculls. The World Championships include lightweights' events for all classes of crew, and in Olympic years a reduced World Championship regatta includes all events that are not represented at the Olympics.
(From Wikipedia)
The Lightweight Boat Race was founded in 1975 by Richard Bates, an undergraduate of St. John's College, Cambridge who arranged the first race between lightweight crews from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge on the Henley Reach. This echoed the first Heavyweight Boat Race, which took place at Henley in 1829, but unlike the Heavyweight event, the Lightweight Boat Race remains at Henley to this day.
In 1977 the Lightweight Boat Race was joined by the Women's Boat Race to create the Henley Boat Races, held each year on a Sunday afternoon in late March, of which the race between OULRC and our light blue rivals continues to be the highlight. The Women's Lightweights, women's reserves (Osiris vs. Blondie) and men's lightweight reserves (Nephthys vs. Granta) joined the programme over the next 25 years. Regrettably, since 2007 Cambridge have failed to field a reserve Granta crew, causing the reserves race to fall into abeyance. Nevertheless, Nephthys remains an important part of the Club as a development boat and stepping stone to the Blue Boat.