Rowing news | Rowing worldwide is in trouble

The sport's international governing body, formerly FISA, is almost entirely dependent on financial support from the International Olympic Committee and faces the same challenges of rising costs, declining relevance and falling revenues that affect every other part of the sports industry – from the NFL to cornhole.

The competition for attention – and the associated sponsorship, spectator and broadcasting rights fees – has proven to be “very difficult and very competitive,” said World Rowing President Jean-Christophe Rolland at the Olympic Games.

Earlier this year, CEO Vincent Gaillard stated bluntly that World Rowing was “not in a good position” and was “going in the wrong direction”.

Rowing is thriving in America, with record numbers of participants and viewerships at the top of the Charles, Schuylkill and Hooch in the fall and the ACRA, IRA and national youth championships in the spring. Rowing also thrives when it is well presented, as at Henley Royal Regatta, which this year attracted record numbers of participants, 300,000 spectators and nearly 100,000 viewers per day via its YouTube livestream.

These numbers are approaching Formula 1's average viewership in the US on ESPN of 1.1 million per race. Last year's Las Vegas Grand Prix attracted 315,000 viewers over four days.

Yet World Rowing runs elite-level rowing in the same old Eurocentric way that the sport has operated since the turn of the millennium: with Rowing World Cups that almost nobody attends (except in Lucerne), World Rowing Championships that are always held in Europe except the year after the Olympics, and regatta programs that could be held in a few days but stretch out over more than a week.

It is expensive and unproductive for all but the small handful of European national teams that dominate the medal tables. European countries won 70 of the 87 medals awarded at last year's world championships in Belgrade. In Paris, three European countries – the Netherlands, Great Britain and Romania – won nine of the 14 events.

Pressure to reduce costs and numbers has reduced the number of competitors in the Olympic rowing events to ridiculously small numbers. Only seven boats qualify for the eights and just nine for the fours and fours. With eight-lane courses the international standard, heats and semifinals are virtually unnecessary. The current Olympic program could be run over a long weekend by the volunteers who make Canada's Henley such a success.

But people love rowing, as evidenced by ticket sales of 97 percent in Paris, where nearly 20,000 cheering fans filled the stands every day. Swimming, athletics and cycling attract the public's attention, with the stars winning multiple medals at each Games. The Romanian women's eight proved that rowing can be done, winning two silver and one gold medal.

Why not have all the small boat events on the first four days of the Olympics and World Championships, and the large boats on the last four (or fewer) days to make this possible? Nations could qualify for the Games, rather than individual boats, and compete in all the rowing events—bring back the fours and coxed pairs!—with a team of 20 men and women competing in as many events as possible.

The sport could certainly use a Michael Phelps or a Simone Biles. Twenty national teams of 20 rowers each is only 400 athletes, less than the current rowing allocation of 502, leaving plenty of room for international inclusion spots.

Pairs events have been added at the Head of the Charles and elite international teams already compete there and at Henley, so why not include popular regattas like these in the World Rowing Cup series?

European national teams already spend a lot of time on remote training camps, so why not train in places like Aiken County, South Carolina, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, ahead of a Rowing World Cup to be held at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota early this spring?

The choice between Florida and Central Europe in early spring is easy. World Rowing could join the rowing party where it is already rocking, rather than continuing the unsuccessful practice of expecting the world to come to them.

To its credit, World Rowing has hired outside consultants to study the problem and offer possible solutions. Meanwhile, officials describe indoor rowing, coastal rowing and e-sports as “exciting” new branches of the sport, but participation and awareness on the same level as real rowing has not yet been achieved.

The leaders in elite rowing have their heads and hearts in the right place. They are just slow.

And rowing slowly doesn't bring success.