Rowing at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Men's eight
The men's eight competition at the 1976 Summer Olympics, also referred to as men's coxed eight, took place at the rowing basin on Notre Dame Island in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was held from 18 to 25 July and was won by the team from East Germany.
Background
Whilst the East German team was considered to be the favourite, the event was wide open and many teams could have won it. The United States had in the past dominated the event and up until and including the 1964 Summer Olympics, they had won nine out of ten Olympic golds. Whilst their dominance had since waned, they were still considered possible medal contenders, as they had won the 1974 World Rowing Championships. East Germany had won the 1973 European Rowing Championships, and the 1975 World Rowing Championships, and they had won bronze at the 1972 Olympics. The New Zealand team had won the event at the previous Summer Olympics, had won bronze at the last two World Rowing Championships, and four of their 1972 Olympic rowers plus their cox returned to Montreal. Other medallist at these major rowing events were Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain.Previous M8+ competitions
Results
Heats
Heat 1
Heat 2
Repechage
Heat 1
New Zealand changed seats for seven of its eight rowers. West Germany and Japan changed seats for all eight rowers. The Soviet team changed seats 1 to 7. The team from Cuba changed seats for seven rowers.| Rank | Rower | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Ivan Sutherland Trevor Coker Peter Dignan Lindsay Wilson Joe Earl Dave Rodger Alec McLean Tony Hurt Simon Dickie | 5:37.08 | FA | |
| 2 | Reinhard Wendemuth Bernd Truschinski Frank Schütze Frithjof Henckel Wolfram Thiem Volker Sauer Otmar Kaufhold Wolf-Dieter Oschlies Helmut Latz | 5:37.76 | FA | |
| 3 | Aleksandr Shitov Antanas Čikotas Vasily Potapov Aleksandr Plyushkin Anatoly Nemtyryov Igor Konnov Anatoly Ivanov Vladimir Vasilyev Vladimir Zharov | 5:40.65 | FB | |
| 4 | Israel Gorguet Francisco Mora Hermenegildo Palacio Angel Ramírez Luis Alonso Humberto Dorrego Alcides Risco Jesús Rosello | 5:47.33 | FB | |
| 5 | Shigeru Miyagawa Toshihai Kitaura Masanobu Yamamoto Takashi Murayama Hiroshi Toriba Kenji Kaneyasu Tomiaki Iso Shiro Mataki Akio Kakishita | 6:11.06 | FB |
Heat 2
Great Britain changed five of its seats, including the stroke. Czechoslovakia changed seats 2 to 6. Canada changed seven of the eight seats.| Rank | Rower | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Richard Lester John Yallop Timothy Crooks Hugh Matheson David Maxwell Jim Clark Frederick Smallbone Lenny Robertson Patrick Sweeney | 5:40.00 | FA | |
| 2 | Pavel Konvička Václav Mls Josef Plamínek Josef Pokorný Karel Mejta Jr. Josef Neštický Lubomír Zapletal Miroslav Vraštil Sr. Jiří Pták | 5:43.81 | FA | |
| 3 | Richard Cashin Steve Christiansen John Everett David Fellows Michael Hess Chip Lubsen Mark Norelius Alan Shealy David Weinberg | 5:48.60 | FB | |
| 4 | Edgar Smith Dirk Gidney George Tintor James Henniger Patrick Croskerry Mel LaForme Ron Burak Alexander Manson Robert Choquette | 5:48.94 | FB |
Finals
The two finals were rowed on 25 July. The only team that did not change seats during the competition was the United States.B final
A final
East Germany changed five seats for the final. After Malcolm Shaw as stroke injured his back in the elimination race, Australia replaced him with Peter Shakespear for the final.| Rank | Rower | Country | Time |
| Bernd Baumgart Gottfried Döhn Werner Klatt Hans-Joachim Lück Dieter Wendisch Roland Kostulski Ulrich Karnatz Karl-Heinz Prudöhl Karl-Heinz Danielowski | 5:58.29 | ||
| Richard Lester John Yallop Timothy Crooks Hugh Matheson David Maxwell Jim Clark Frederick Smallbone Lenny Robertson Patrick Sweeney | 6:00.82 | ||
| Ivan Sutherland Trevor Coker Peter Dignan Lindsay Wilson Joe Earl Dave Rodger Alec McLean Tony Hurt Simon Dickie | 6:03.51 | ||
| 4 | Reinhard Wendemuth Bernd Truschinski Frank Schütze Frithjof Henckel Wolfram Thiem Volker Sauer Otmar Kaufhold Wolf-Dieter Oschlies Helmut Latz | 6:06.15 | |
| 5 | Islay Lee Ian Clubb Tim Conrad Robert Paver Gary Uebergang Athol MacDonald Peter Shakespear Brian Richardson Stuart Carter | 6:09.75 | |
| 6 | Pavel Konvička Václav Mls Josef Plamínek Josef Pokorný Karel Mejta Jr. Josef Neštický Lubomír Zapletal Miroslav Vraštil Sr. Jiří Pták | 6:14.29 |