Rowing at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's eight
The men's coxed eight competition at the 1968 Summer Olympics took place at Virgilio Uribe Rowing and Canoeing Course, Mexico City, Mexico. It was held from 13 to 19 October and was won by the team from West Germany, with the teams from Australia and the Soviet Union claiming silver and bronze respectively.
Background
The United States had won this event at the last eight of nine Olympics, only missing out in 1960. West Germany was one of the favourites, as they had won the last four European Championships and the last two World Championships. The Soviet Union had a number of silver medal placings at recent events and were also among the favourites.Races were held in up to six lanes. Twelve teams from 12 nations attended the competition. Five of the teams replaced a total of six rowers during the competition, making for a total of 114 rowers who participated in the races.
Results
Rowers are shown as per the seats occupied in the official results book published by the Organizing Committee of the Games of the XIX Olympiad.Heats
Two heats were rowed on 13 October. The winning teams qualified for the final, and the remaining teams progressed to the repechage.Heat 1
Heat 2
The Official Report of the Organising Committee lists Michael Livingston in seat 7 of the United States boat, but this is incorrect, as he travelled to the 1968 Games as a reserve only. It was his elder brother, Cleve Livingston, who sat in seat 7 for the heat and final.| Rank | Rower | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Alan Webster Wybo Veldman Alistair Dryden John Hunter Mark Brownlee John Gibbons Tom Just Gil Cawood Robert Page | 6:05.62 | FA | |
| 2 | Peter Hein Klaus-Dieter Bähr Claus Wilke Günter Bergau Peter Gorny Reinhard Zerfowski Manfred Schneider Peter Prompe Karl-Heinz Danielowski | 6:09.48 | R | |
| 3 | Zigmas Jukna Antanas Bagdonavičius Volodymyr Sterlik Juozas Jagelavičius Aleksandr Martyshkin Vytautas Briedis Valentyn Kravchuk Viktor Suslin Yuriy Lorentsson | 6:09.65 | R | |
| 4 | Maarten Kloosterman Erik Wesdorp Jan van Laarhoven Jan Steinhauser Eric Niehe Gee van Enst Jaap Reesink Piet Bon Arthur Koning | 6:12.23 | R | |
| 5 | Arthur Evans Curtis Canning Andy Larkin Scott Steketee Franklin Hobbs Steve Brooks Cleve Livingston David Higgins Paul Hoffman | 6:15.42 | R | |
| 6 | Peter Thomas Andrew Bayles Patrick Wright Peter Knapp Malcolm Malpass Robin Yarrow Bruce Carter Matthew Cooper Timothy Kirk | 6:22.20 | R |
Repechage
Two heats were rowed in the semi-finals on 15 October. Of the five teams competing per heat, the first two would qualify for the final, while the others would progress to the small final.Heat 1
In the boat of the United States, Jake Fiechter in seat 6 replaced Cleve Livingston, who had taken seat 7 in the first round. Steve Brooks displaced Arthur Evans as stroke, with the latter moving to seat 7.| Rank | Rower | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Petr Čermák Milan Hurtala Vladimír Jánoš Zdeněk Kuba Otakar Mareček Oldřich Svojanovský Pavel Svojanovský Jan Wallisch Jiří Pták | 6:19.34 | FA | |
| 2 | Steve Brooks Curtis Canning Andy Larkin Scott Steketee Franklin Hobbs Jake Fiechter Arthur Evans David Higgins Paul Hoffman | 6:19.81 | FA | |
| 3 | Peter Hein Klaus-Dieter Bähr Claus Wilke Günter Bergau Peter Gorny Reinhard Zerfowski Manfred Schneider Peter Prompe Karl-Heinz Danielowski | 6:21.71 | FB | |
| 4 | Neil Campbell John Ross Clayton Brown Richard Crooker John Richardson Richard Symsyk John McIntyre Daryl MacDonald Joel Finley | 6:31.14 | FB | |
| 5 | Peter Thomas Andrew Bayles Patrick Wright Peter Knapp Malcolm Malpass Robin Yarrow Bruce Carter Matthew Cooper Timothy Kirk | 6:43.55 | FB |
Heat 2
Small final
The small final was raced on 18 October.Great Britain replaced Malcolm Malpass in seat 5 with John Mullard in this race, and Canada replaced John Richardson in seat 5 with Daryl Sturdy. Mexico changed the seats for all rowers apart from the cox, and East Germany changed four of the seats. The Netherlands changed all seats apart from the stroke and the cox.
| Rank | Rower | Country | Time |
| 7 | Günter Bergau Klaus-Dieter Bähr Claus Wilke Peter Gorny Reinhard Zerfowski Peter Hein Manfred Schneider Peter Prompe Karl-Heinz Danielowski | 6:11.69 | |
| 8 | Maarten Kloosterman Piet Bon Eric Niehe Jaap Reesink Gee van Enst Jan Steinhauser Erik Wesdorp Jan van Laarhoven Arthur Koning | 6:14.18 | |
| 9 | Neil Campbell John Ross Clayton Brown Richard Crooker Daryl Sturdy Richard Symsyk John McIntyre Daryl MacDonald Joel Finley | 6:18.65 | |
| 10 | Peter Thomas Andrew Bayles Patrick Wright Peter Knapp John Mullard Robin Yarrow Bruce Carter Matthew Cooper Timothy Kirk | 6:29.23 | |
| 11 | Edgar Morales Víctor Cervantes Emilio Leal Sergio Vásquez Miguel Fuentes Antonio Páramo Federico Arce Amado Mediña Rodolfo Santillán | 6:41.62 | |
| 12 | Masatoshi Shimizu Tomio Murai Tadamasa Kato Shigeru Miyagawa Fumio Nakata Jujiro Tanaka Toshi Fukumasu Yoshinori Arai Katsumi Yamamoto | 6:52.02 |
Final
The final was raced on 19 October. On the morning of the race, the West German team replaced Roland Böse—who was suffering from angina pectoris and had developed a fever—with Niko Ott in seat 8. The team from Czechoslovakia replaced Milan Hurtala with Karel Kolesa, and all the remaining rowers apart from the cox took different seats in the final compared to the two previous races. The team from the United States replaced Arthur Evans with Cleve Livingston in seat 7.| Rank | Rower | Country | Time |
| Horst Meyer Dirk Schreyer Rüdiger Henning Lutz Ulbricht Wolfgang Hottenrott Egbert Hirschfelder Jörg Siebert Niko Ott Gunther Tiersch | 6:07.00 | ||
| Alf Duval Michael Morgan Joe Fazio Peter Dickson David Douglas John Ranch Gary Pearce Bob Shirlaw Alan Grover | 6:07.98 | ||
| Zigmas Jukna Antanas Bagdonavičius Volodymyr Sterlik Juozas Jagelavičius Aleksandr Martyshkin Vytautas Briedis Valentyn Kravchuk Viktor Suslin Yuriy Lorentsson | 6:09.11 | ||
| 4 | Alan Webster Wybo Veldman Alistair Dryden John Hunter Mark Brownlee John Gibbons Tom Just Gil Cawood Robert Page | 6:10.43 | |
| 5 | Vladimír Jánoš Zdeněk Kuba Oldřich Svojanovský Karel Kolesa Pavel Svojanovský Jan Wallisch Otakar Mareček Petr Čermák Jiří Pták | 6:12.17 | |
| 6 | Steve Brooks Curtis Canning Andy Larkin Scott Steketee Franklin Hobbs Jake Fiechter Cleve Livingston David Higgins Paul Hoffman | 6:14.34 |
After the medal ceremony, Ott gave his gold medal to Böse, but another medal was later minted for Ott. As per convention, the Olympic results database lists Böse as a medallist based on the fact that he competed in the qualifying race.