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Rowing Australia says there will be an independent review into the high performance program after their worst Olympic campaign since Seoul in 1988.

Rowing Australia (RA) will leave "no stone unturned" to uncover why the team produced its lowest Olympic medal yield in 36 years, leaving Paris with just one bronze.

After the high of Tokyo when they equalled the most rowing gold won at a Games, with two as well as two bronze, the sole medal was won by women's pair Annabelle McIntyre and Jess Morrison.

The previous worst result at an Olympics was in Seoul in 1988 when the rowers failed to podium.

Tara Rigney came devastatingly close to a second bronze on the final day of racing at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, mowed down by Lithuania's Viktorija Senkute in the final 100m to miss the podium by 0.53 seconds.

Rigney was attempting to become the second Australian woman to medal in the event, following her mentor Kim Brennan, but the 25-year-old was no match for dominant Dutch star Karolien Florijn.

"At the end of the day I executed my race plan and didn't quite have those last 10 strokes in me ... my best just wasn't good enough," a tearful Rigney said.

Australia's crew in the women's eight also placed fourth - their best ever Olympic result - but the regatta ended with more disappointment with men's eight finishing last in the final.

RA had high hopes for the crew after pulling a selection gamble this year and stacking the eight with three rowers who won the four in Tokyo to try to win their first gold in the blue riband event.

But after showing promise early in the season, the risk yielded no reward.

The newly-formed men's four, who only had two international regattas together, also finished last in their medal race.

The women's four, also Tokyo gold medallists, was also overhauled with the new-look crew at the back of the field in both their heat and repechage rounds.

RA performance director Paul Thompson said a poor world championship result by the original men's four prompted the changes.

"We shouldn't forget they (the four) came fifth last year at the world championships," Thompson said.

"And it's the same with the women's boat, they came fourth in the world's last year as well.

"It's a long string from Tokyo to Paris, even though it's only three years."

While praising the effort across the squad, Thompson said the Australians entered Paris without a single world champion boat and faced fierce competition.

"What we haven't done this Olympiad is had a world champion crew coming in and punching at that level," he said. 

"We've had lots of good medallists and we haven't been converting at that top level so in essence, our strategy was reflected from where we finished last year at the world championships."

Thompson said an external review of the high performance program had already started and it would look at the training program, the taper, selections and strategy.

"We definitely need to leave no stone unturned," he said.

"We're having a proper independent review."

He felt the future was bright for Los Angeles in 2028 and beyond, with U23 crews showing promising international results.