The 1981 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 30 August to 6 September 1981 at Oberschleißheim Regatta Course in Oberschleißheim near Munich, West Germany.^[1]

Medal summary

Men's events

Event:	Gold:	Time	Silver:	Time	Bronze:	Time
M1x	West Germany Peter-Michael Kolbe	7:45.32	East Germany Rüdiger Reiche	7:48.90	United States John Biglow	7:51.55
M2x	East Germany Klaus Kröppelien (b) Joachim Dreifke (s)	6:41.99	Finland Reima Karppinen (b) Pertti Karppinen (s)	6:44.06	Norway Rolf Thorsen (b) Alf Hansen (s)	6:44.61
M4x	East Germany Peter Kersten (b) Karl-Heinz Bußert (2) Uwe Heppner (3) Martin Winter (s)	6:11.37	Soviet Union Igor Yarkov (b) Sergey Shevchenko (2) Vladimir Koldishkin (3) Aleksandr Sdravomislov (s)	6:14.58	France Denis Gaté (b) Jean-Raymond Peltier (2) Charles Imbert (3) Marc Boudoux (s)	6:17.45
M2+	Italy Carmine Abbagnale (b) Giuseppe Abbagnale (s) Giuseppe Di Capua (c)	7:43.73	East Germany Karsten Schmeling (b) Jürgen Seyfarth (s) Hendrik Reiher (c)	7:46.22	Great Britain Thomas Cadoux-Hudson (b) Richard Budgett (s) Adrian Ellison (c)	7:47.03
M2-	Soviet Union Yuriy Pimenov (b) Nikolay Pimenov (s)	7:15.06	Netherlands Willem Jan Atsma (b) Ted Bosman (s)	7:20.04	Italy Antonio Baldacci (b) Ezio Pacovich (s) (s)	7:23.28
M4+	East Germany Dietmar Schiller (b) Jörg Friedrich (2) Bernd Niesecke (3) Harald Jährling (s) Klaus-Dieter Ludwig (c)	6:36.88	United States Andrew Sudduth (b) Thomas Woodman (2) John Everett (3) Fred Borchelt (s) Robert Jaugstetter (c)	6:39.68	Soviet Union Viktor Omelyanovich (b) Dimants Krišjānis (2) Dzintars Krišjānis (3) Dzorzes Tikmers (s) Juris Bērziņš (c)	6:40.52
M4-	Soviet Union Aleksey Kamkin (b) Valeriy Dolinin (2) Aleksandr Kulagin (3) Vitaliy Eliseyev (s)	6:35.85	Switzerland Bruno Saile (b) Jürg Weitnauer (2) Hans-Konrad Trümpler (3) Stefan Netzle (s)	6:41.47	East Germany Klaus Büttner (b) Hans-Peter Koppe (2) Jens Doberschütz (3) Uwe Gasch (s)	6:43.07
M8+	Soviet Union Zigmas Gudauskas (b) Nikolai Solomakhin (2) Vladimir Krilov (3) Viktor Diduk (4) Stasys Narušaitis (5) Jonas Narmontas (6) Jonas Pinskus (7) Ihar Maystrenka (s) Vladimir Nizhegorodov (c)	6:02.30	Great Britain Mark Andrews (b) John Bland (2) Colin Seymour (3) Christopher Mahoney (4) Andrew Justice (5) John Pritchard (6) Malcolm McGowan (7) Richard Stanhope (s) Colin Moynihan (c)	6:04.31	United States Daniel Lyons (b) John Zevenbergen (2) Thomas Kiefer (3) James McDougall (4) John Phinney (5) Dave Clark (6) Charles Clapp (7) Matthew Labine (s) Seth Bauer (c)	6:06.13
Lightweight events
LM1x	United States Scott Roop	7:22.90	Austria Raimund Haberl	7:25.30	Canada Brian Thorne	7:27.16
LM2x	Italy Francesco Esposito (b) Ruggero Verroca (s)	6:42.17	United States Paul Fuchs Jr (b) William Belden Sr (s)	6:44.22	Denmark Leif Kruse (b) Bjarne Eltang (s)	6:48.95
LM4-	Australia Graham Gardiner (b) Charles Bartlett (2) Clyde Hefer (3) Simon Gillett (s)	6:22.32	Netherlands Peter Van Berkel (b) Richard Helsloot (2) Willem Appeldoorn (3) Paul Paulsen (s)	6:24.04	Canada Timothy Turner (b) Edward Gibson (2) Jim Relle (3) Patrick Turner (s)	6:26.60
LM8+	Denmark Torben Knudsen Jan Jensen Ivar Mølgaard Arne Højlund Søren Hansson Søren Eriksen Mikael Espersen Bent Fransson Peter Klug-Andersen (c)	5:58.41	Italy Franco Pantano Mauro Torta Romano Uberti Lauro Zettin Renzo Borsini Lanfranco Borsini Claudio Castiglioni Leonardo Salani Davide Lanza (c)	5:59.05	Spain Fernando Climent Luis Arteaga Leon Carlos Sáez Bernardos José Antonio Expósito Sánchez Francisco Goicoechea García Guillermo Müller Gascón Alberto Molina Castillo José Marti Miranda Fernando Macho (c)	6:01.03

Women's events

Event:	Gold:	Time	Silver:	Time	Bronze:	Time
W1x	Romania Sanda Toma	3:54.46	Great Britain Beryl Mitchell	3:55.58	Soviet Union Irina Fetisova	3:56.99
W2x	Soviet Union Margerita Kokarevitch Antonina Zelikovich	3:40.65	East Germany Kerstin Kirst Jutta Hampe	3:30.11	Bulgaria Iskra Velinova Anka Bakova	3:30.21
W4x+	Soviet Union Tatyana Danilova Olga Kaspina Yelena Khloptseva Larisa Popova Maria Zemskova-Korotkova (c)	3:19.83	East Germany Heidi Westphal Birka Brandt-Fengler Cornelia Linse Jutta Ploch Jenny Gerber (c)	3:21.65	Romania Aneta Mihaly Valeria Răcilă Sofia Corban Olga Homeghi Ecaterina Oancia (c)	3:22.89
W2-[2]	East Germany Iris Rudolph Sigrid Anders	3:45.50	Canada Elizabeth Craig Tricia Smith	3:45.77	Romania Rodica Arba Elena Horvat	3:50.45
W4+	Soviet Union Olga Pivovarova Marina Studneva Svetlana Semyonova Raisa Doligoiada Nina Cheremisina (c)	3:18.75	East Germany Viola Kestler Silvia Fröhlich-Arndt Marita Sandig-Gasch Romy Saalfeld Kirsten Wenzel (c)	3:23.95	United States Susan Tuttle Hope Barnes Shyril O'Steen Harriet Metcalf Nanette Bernadou (c)	3:27.35
W8+	Soviet Union Regina Baltutite Irina Teterina Elena Tereshina Nataliya Yatsenko Elena Makushkina Tatyana Shvetsova Nina Umanets Maria Paziun Nina Frolova (c)	3:07.58	United States Carol Bower Carol Brown Jeanne Flanagan Patricia Spratlin Kristine Norelius Carie Graves Elizabeth Hills-O'Leary Liz Miles Valerie McClain-Ward (c)	3:10.32	Romania Rodica Frîntu Florica Bucur Luminata Furcila Maricica Țăran Cristina Onofrei Maria Naghiu Mariana Zaharia Elena Bondar Elena Dobrițoiu (c)	3:14.05

Medal table

Platz	Land	Gold	Silber	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union	7	1	2	10
2	East Germany	4	5	1	10
3	Italy	2	1	1	4
4	United States	1	3	3	7
5	Romania	1		3	4
6	Denmark	1		1	2
7	Australia	1			1
	West Germany	1			1
9	Great Britain		2	1	3
10	Netherlands		2		2
11	Canada		1	2	3
12	Austria		1		1
	Finland		1		1
	Switzerland		1		1
15	Bulgaria			1	1
	Spain			1	1
	France			1	1
	Norway			1	1
Summe		18	18	18	54