Gold: Tranquilo Capozzo, Eduardo Guerrero. Silver: Heorhiy Zhylin, Ihor Yemchuk. Bronze: Miguel Seijas, Juan Rodríguez. Rowing at the 1952 Summer Olympics took place in the Helsinki neighborhood of Meilahti, after plans to host it in Taivallahti were abandoned. The 1952 program remained that same as it had been since 1924 and would continue to be until 1976, when it was expanded to include women and the men’s quadruple sculls. The United States resumed its rowing dominance by topping the rankings as the only nation to win two gold medals and one of only two (along with the Soviet Union’s inaugural appearance) to capture three medals in total. Finland, the host nation, won its first Olympic rowing medal by taking bronze in the coxless fours, as did Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia by taking gold in the coxless and coxed fours respectively. Two new entities, Saar and the Soviet Union, appeared in rowing events in Helsinki, although both had appeared in other forms at previous editions. Chile and Romania made their débuts by entering competitors in the single sculls and the coxed eights respectively. These nations raised the number of participating countries to a record of 33 and helped increase the distribution of medals to a greater degree than in any previous Olympics. |--| Britain had replaced the United States as the world power in double sculls, but sent the relatively unheralded [John MacMillan] and [Peter Brandt] of the Cambridge University Boat Club and were not considered strong favorites. Perhaps better positioned were Denmark’s [Ebbe Parsner] and [Aage Larsen], the defending silver medalists and two-time European Champions and Double Sculls Challenge Cup winners (1949 and 1950). Also thought to be in contention were [Peter Stebler] and [Emil Knecht] of Switzerland, the reigning European Champions, and [Robert George] and [Jos Van Stichel] of Belgium, the 1952 winners of the Double Sculls Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta. None of these men, however, would win a medal in Helsinki. The Swiss, Britons, and Danes all found themselves eliminated by the conclusion of the opening’s round repêchage. The Belgians followed by the end of the semi-final round, leaving five lesser-known duos to contest the final. Of them, [Jacques Maillet] of France was probably the best known, having been one half of the 1949 European bronze medalists. He and his new partner [Achille Giovannoni], however, would not see the podium and remained far from contention throughout the race, besting only the Czechoslovakian pairing of [Antonín Malinkovič] and [Jiří Vykoukal]. It was the Argentines, [Tranquilo Capozzo] and [Eduardo Guerrero], who dominated the field, taking the gold medal over six seconds ahead of their nearest challengers, [Heorhiy Zhylin] and [Ihor Yemchuk] of the Soviet Union. Uruguay’s [Miguel Seijas] and [Juan Rodríguez] came in third. Little did Capozzo, who had been eliminated in the semi-finals of the single sculls in 1948, and Guerrero know that they would have to savour their victory for many decades to come: Argentina would not take home another Olympic gold medal in any sport until 2004. It was the nation’s second Olympic rowing medal, and first gold, after [Horacio Podestá] and [Julio Curatella’s] third-place finish in the coxless pairs in 1936..