The American men, meanwhile, settled for third place in their eight race, failing to defend their title from the Athens Games.

After having won a silver in the eight in Athens, the United States women defeated the Netherlands by more than two seconds.

The only rowers back from the Athens team were coxswain Mary Whipple, Anne Cummins and Caryn Davies. They were joined Erin Cafaro, Lindsay Shoop, Anna Goodale, Elle Logan, Caroline Lind and Susan Francia.

"We rowed a boat called The Hunter," Cummins said. "We hunted everyone all the way down.

The Netherlands held on for second place over Romania by just .03 of a second. Romania was seeking its fourth straight gold medal in the event. The only other American gold in the women's eight came in 1984.

The United States men finished behind Canada and Britain.

On the final day of rowing, China won its first Olympic gold medal in the sport. Chinese women finished first in the quadruple sculls, beating defending world champion Britain by 1.31 seconds.

China won five rowing medals overall, all of them by women.

Other golds went to Poland in men's quadruple sculls, the Netherlands in lightweight women's double sculls and Britain in men's lightweight double sculls.