Banyoles Banyoles Banyoles () is a city of 17,309 inhabitants (2006) located in the province of Girona in northeastern Catalonia, Spain. The town is the capital of the Catalan "comarca" "Pla de l'Estany". Although an established industrial centre many of the inhabitants commute to nearby Girona (12 km to the south). Banyoles is most famous for the Lake of Banyoles, a natural lake located in a tectonic depression. It was the venue for the rowing events in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics as well as the "negro of Banyoles", a controversial piece of taxidermy. With a superb natural environment for the practice
Rowing at the 2000 Summer Olympics had won her first Olympic gold medal and third overall in the quadruple sculls, teaming up with her partner Jana Thieme. The rowing events also depict some numerous dramatic races, as the single scull events became highly anticipated and closely contested. Ekaterina Karsten, the defending Olympic champion from Belarus, won a photo finish in the women's single sculls, over Bulgaria's Rumyana Neykova by one hundredths of a second. On the other hand, New Zealand's Rob Waddell, world champion (and world record holder in indoor rowing) beat defending Olympic champion Xeno Müller of Switzerland, along with Germany's Marcel Hacker and Canada's