The best female body type for rowing is the same as the best male body type for rowing: tall and strong. The best body type for rowing has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with physics. Tall rowers have longer "levers." Because their arms and legs are longer, they can propel the boat through the water more efficiently, and strong rowers can propel the boat through the water more powerfully.
Size and Weight
World-class female rowers who compete in the Olympics and World Championship tend to be about 5' 11" to 6' 1". Elite male rowers often are 6' 3" to 6'5". Women tend to weigh around 165 to 175 lb. and men around 200 to 210 lb., although a 250 lb. rower is not a total rarity. Almost all of a rower's weight is muscle since rowers don't want to propel a shell with any surplus weight.
Physics and Physiology
As The New York Times reported in September 2007, Dr. Niels Secher, an exercise researcher and rower at the University of Copenhagen, predicted how fast rowers could go based only on their sizes and the weight of their boats. His exceeding educated guesses were accurate to within 1 percent. Although rowers weigh up to 250 lb., water buoys the boat to the extent that the strength of the rowers overcomes the added weight in the boat. In addition, bigger muscles enable bigger people to use and store more oxygen and glucogen. "It's like having a bigger motor," Dr. Secher said.
Other Factors
Even if a female rower is the ideal weight and size, success is hardly inevitable. You have to have the discipline, work ethic and ability to fight through pain to become a champion. There are lightweight teams that defeat good heavyweight teams, and individual lightweight rowers who are talented enough to earn a place in heavyweight boats. Still, the right body type can give you a huge head start. In the 1980s, the Australian Institute of Sports started a talent search to identify 14- to 16-year-olds with the potential to become elite athletes. Megan Fox had never rowed a boat in her life. However, she had a near-perfect physique for a rower. Nine years after she was selected for the program, Fox won a gold medal in women's rowing in Atlanta at the 1996 Olympic Games.
Considerations
If you want to row and don't have an ideal body type for the sport, all is not lost. There is a lightweight rowing category, so smaller people can compete against their peers. The weight limit for lightweight rowing is 160 lb. for men and 140 lb. for women. Unfortunately, lightweight rowing for women is rarely funded at the high school and college level. Some schools and clubs persevere, mostly on the East Coast. Radcliffe, with a tradition of great lightweight rowing teams, captures the national lightweight championship on a regular basis.
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