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 (sport) coastal rowing, where a number of boats race out to a given point from the coast and then return fighting rough water all the way. In Irish coastal rowing the boats are in individual lanes with the races consisting of up to 3 turns to make the race distance 2.3 km. The Olympic Games are held every four years, where only select boat classes are raced (14 in total): At the end of each year, the FISA holds the World Rowing Championships with events in 22 different boat classes. Athletes generally consider the Olympic classes to be premier events .