The competition consisted of two main rounds (heats and finals) as well as a repechage. The 10 boats were divided into two heats for the first round, with 5 boats in each heat. The winner of each heat (2 boats total) advanced directly to the "A" final (for 1st through 6th place). The remaining 8 boats were placed in the repechage. The repechage featured two heats, with 4 boats in each heat. The top two boats in each repechage heat (4 boats total) advanced to the "A" final. The remaining 4 boats (3rd and 4th placers in the repechage heats) were eliminated from medal contention and competed in the "B" final for 7th through 10th place.[2]
All races were over a 2000 metre course, unlike previous Games in which women used a 1000 metre course.
^"Rowing at the 1988 Seoul Summer Games: Women's Coxed Fours". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
^Official Report, vol. 2, pp. 532–33.
^The Official Report does not identify coxswains. For Bulgaria in the heats, the Official Report lists five rowers (the Zareva sisters, Stoichkova, Stoyanova, and Katia Todorova—who may be the same person as Rita Todorova or may be her twin [1]), but none appear to be coxswains. Georgieva was the coxswain for later rounds.[2]
East Germany
Bulgaria
China
Canada
South Korea
Romania
Soviet Union
Poland
United States
Great Britain
