Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020: Boat-by-Boat Preview

Rowing events at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 get underway on Friday at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo, Japan.

The U.S. will have crews competing in all four boat classes including the PR1 men's single sculls, PR1 women's single sculls, PR2 mixed double sculls and PR3 mixed four with coxswain. In 2016, the Americans won silver in the PR3 mixed four.
 
Heats will be held on Friday, August 27, with

repechages taking place on Saturday, August 28. Finals will be held Sunday, August 29. Racing is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. EDT) each day.
 
Click here for the full schedule on the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 website, and click here for USRowing's Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 coverage page.
 
PR1 Men's Single Sculls (PR1 M1x)
 
Blake Haxton (Columbus, Ohio/Ohio State University) returns to the single for his second Paralympic Games, having finished fourth in the arms-only men's single sculls in Rio. Haxton finished seventh in the event at the 2019 World Rowing Championships and fourth in 2018. 
 
Ukraine's Roman Polianskyi, the defending Paralympic champion, won the event at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, with Russia's Aleksey Chuvashev finishing second and Australia's Erik Horrie finishing third.
 
The U.S. has never won a Paralympic medal in the event. Haxton also will be competing for the U.S. in para canoe in Tokyo. 
 
PR1 Women's Single Sculls (PR1 W1x)
 
Hallie Smith (Washington D.C./Smith College) will be racing at her first Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Smith won a bronze medal in the event at the 2018 World Rowing Championships, before finishing sixth in 2019.
 
Norway's Birgit Skarstein won gold in the event at the 2019 World Rowing Championships and at this year's European Championships. France's Nathalie Benoit finished second in 2019, followed by Israel's Moran Samuel. Samuel turned the tables on Benoit at the 2021 European Championships, flipping spots with the Frenchwoman. 
 
Laura Schwanger won bronze at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, the only medal the U.S. has won at the Paralympics in the event.
 
PR2 Mixed Double Sculls (PR2 Mixed 2x)
 
Two-time Paralympian Laura Goodkind (Los Angeles,Calif./Whittier College) will race with a new partner in Tokyo -- Russell Gernaat (Redwood City, Calif.). Goodkind rowed with Helman Roman in 2016, finishing 10^th in the then trunk and arms double sculls. Goodkind and Germaat finished eighth in the event at the 2019 World Rowing Championships.
 
Great Britain won the event in 2019, with The Netherlands and France taking the silver and bronze medals, respectively. The three crews repeated those performances at the 2021 European Championships.
 
The U.S. won bronze in the event in 2012 with Oksana Masters and Rob Jones. 
 
PR3 Mixed Four with Coxswain (PR3 Mixed 4+)
 
The U.S. PR3 mixed four with coxswain brought home the silver medal for the sixth consecutive year at the 2019 World Rowing Championships -- a streak that includes the 2016 Paralympics in Rio. 
 
This year's crew of coxswain Karen Petrik (Glastonbury, Conn./University of Rhode Island), Dani Hansen (Patterson, Calif./University of Washington), John Tanguay (Pennington, N.J./Columbia University), Charley Nordin (Alameda, Calif./Gonzaga University) and Allie Reilly (North Kingstown, R.I./University of Rhode Island) returns intact from 2019 as it tries to end Great Britain's six-year hold on the event. Hansen, a two-time Paralympian, has been part of all six silver-medal crews, while the remaining athletes are first-time Paralympians.
 
Italy finished third at the 2019 World Rowing Championships behind Great Britain and the U.S. The British crew also won the 2021 European Championships, with France coming in second ahead of the Italians.
 
In addition to 2016, the U.S. won silver at the 2008 Paralympics as well.