The routine Olympic press conference is never straightforward – recent editions have included weather-cancelled sessions, unfair lanes, Russian drug issues and waterborne infections. This may be why World Rowing president Jean-Christophe Rolland was looking more relieved than usual that they’ve had only had a few problems to deal with in Paris, when he sat down with Executive Director Vincent Gaillard to face the press.

The main theme was change. There are revolutions everyone knows are coming, concerning a 1500-metre course for LA2028 and the disappearance of lightweight rowing from the Olympic programme. And a few more changes yet to be decided. The shape of rowing’s future is starting to coalesce, although some details remain undecided, some will be resolved at next year’s pivotal Quadrennial Congress.

A review – still unfinished – has been running for the last two years to help World Rowing decide the shape of the worlds programme. Rowing also needs to introduce new ideas to keep up with changes other Olympic sports are making in line with Agenda 2020+5, the IOC’s blueprint for staying relevant, profitable and sustainable. This is taking place via the usual multifaceted discussions, including rowing coaches, athlete representatives and team managers, not just the federation presidents and other official representatives. “This has been my approach in the past and will be my approach in the future as well, not to impose any decision but to involve everyone into the exercise,” said Rolland, who used this tactic to get rowing used to the idea of the lightweight change when it was forced on World Rowing. He and Gaillard touched upon several newer areas.

Three disciplines of rowing

Partly due to financial needs, partly to keep on attracting youngsters, World Rowing is pushing hard to give indoor rowing a higher profile and potentially attract sponsorship which might be ploughed back into ‘classic’ rowing, as the flatwater discipline is starting to be called. The IOC is founding the Olympic eSport Games, which will include the less commercial end of video-gaming, allied with sports simulation, and rowing has a part to play with e-connected erg racing.

Similar to Zwift and Peloton contests, where athletes ride bikes at home connected online to form a competition, indoor rowing lends itself to real athleticism with competitors connected via the internet. This can make rowing relevant to those who would never dream of jumping in a boat or training as part of a national team but are happy to flex their muscles in the local gym or their own spare room.

The third discipline is sea rowing, a combination of beach and more traditional coastal racing. The exciting beach sprints are coming to the LA Games in four years, while coastal competition has been taking off and has its own world championships. Both brings the rowing stroke to locations, audiences and communities as yet unconnected with classic flatwater rowing, along with the chance for current Olympic champions to find another way to use their skills. The unpredictability of beach racing and the existence of mixed beach sprints doubles have everything the new disciplines of rival sports offer, and fit well within the Agenda 2020+5 plans. World Rowing aims to help all three branches of the sport grow.

LA cut short

Discussions about how to prepare crews for the curtailed 1500-metre Los Angeles Olympic course have been buzzing since the Long Beach Stadium was confirmed for four years time. Based on lengthy discussions, it’s not looking as if anything else will be altered. “At this stage I can tell you there is no change, we will remain within the World Rowing rules,” said Rolland. “The world championships 2027 will remain 2000 metres.”

Coaches have repeatedly told him they would not change the training programme for a 1500-metre race, which is considered the shortest limit to keep similar preparations for 1500 and 2000 metres even for the fast eights. “There will probably be a specific final preparation for the Olympic regatta in 2028, but it doesn’t mean that from now on athletes will be prepared for 1500 metres. This has been discussed through the sport aspect and through the medical aspect as well,” said Rolland.

Lightweight rowing and future numbers

The facts are these: lightweights will leave the Olympic programme after Paris, and there’s nothing to be done about it. “After Rio we had a letter, it was absolutely clear, the IOC was going to make a review of lightweight rowing,” said Rolland. “And it became clear World Rowing would not [be able to] find an opposing argument.” But it was possible to try and replace those athletes with beach sprints, and that became the World Rowing strategy. At the meeting in Mumbai to consider new disciplines on the Olympic programme, rowing got lucky. “Seventeen IFs [international federations] had presented an additional discipline: only one passed,” said Rolland. That one was beach sprints rowing.

Two questions remain for World Rowing: how will this affect numbers, and will lightweight events stay in the rowing worlds? On the first, he can’t yet give an answer. “We are still in discussion with the IOC,” Rolland explained. “Athlete quotas will be announced after the evaluation of Paris. Since Tokyo the IOC has made it clear that the number of athletes at the Olympic Games will not go beyond 10,500, including the extra sports. To sum up, we don’t yet have final numbers, but this will be finalised by the end of this year.” World Rowing has proposed that it have 64 beach sprints athletes: 16 of each for beach men’s and women’s singles, plus 16 mixed doubles. [No doubt doubling-up would permit more athletes to be invited, if it happens.]

On the other matter, it’s clear that lightweight events will be subject to World Rowing’s Rule 25, which determines that events with three consecutive straight finals must be dropped from the world championships programme. So it’s up to the federations to keep entering lightweight events then they will continue, including at continental regattas such as the Asian and South American Games.

Doubling up discussions

The Romanian exploitation of current Olympic Aa athlete accreditation regulations in Paris has been discussed between World Rowing and the IOC, since it used up 11 of rowing’s 502 accreditations. (Since the original changes two of the 11 have come back into the competing squad.) “[Romania] have completely complied with the rule, [but] the rule was not meant to be applied like that,” said Rolland. He hinted at likely rule changes to avoid such an issue in future. Yet it is looking very likely that required doubling up may be the future of classic rowing at the Olympics, as there is continual pressure to reduce athlete numbers. Currently 2km rowing, one of the least desirable sports to broadcasters, has a ratio of 79 athletes per gold medal, whilst athletics comes in at 37 per gold and swimming at 24 per gold. If rowing were the most popular sport in the world that wouldn’t matter, but it isn’t.

“The pressure on the quota will not reduce, it will increase,” said Rolland. “When it comes to numbers we really have to think differently again. We are considering having mixed events, and this will be discussed with our member federations.” This would include mixed events made up of already-competing athletes, and might move into the worlds programme. “It’s also a request from the teams, to reduce numbers since we all face financial difficulties. This would make it more affordable even for the big teams.”

New calendar, local boats?

Gaillard has been overseeing the review of classic rowing’s programme and, though it is unfinished, gave some steers. “There’s no white smoke yet, but the calendar will start to become very different in 2025.” World Rowing want to make the worlds programme attractive both to broadcasters and teams. They are considering an incentive to make attending all the world cups more enticing, which is planned to be applied to the three existing world cups from 2027.

“And we will entirely redefine it from 2029 onwards,” he added, commenting that the number, type and location of world cups could be up for grabs. “We need to do a better job of taking world cups outside Europe, but there is no easy solution to that either. Change will be gradual because we cannot make radical change in the middle of the Olympic cycle. But they will be more attractive from a sports presentation and a fan engagement perspective.”

Rolland also pointed out that for sustainability reasons, the shipping of so many boats across the world to every regatta may need to be phased out. “[Host-provided boats] is a thing we have already done with coastal [rowing], and it works. This is something we want to consider for [classic] rowing as well. We know it’s very sensitive but the context we are in, we want to consider it.” He envisages pools of boats at rowing courses, which between events could be used for development training and local racing. “It’s not a decision yet, I’m just sharing with you an idea”, he concluded.

Row360 coverage of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games