Rowing, often called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using rowlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is divided into two disciplines: sculling and sweep rowing. In sculling, each rower holds two oars, one in each hand, while in sweep rowing each rower holds one oar with both hands. There are several boat classes in which athletes may compete, ranging from single sculls, occupied by one person, to shells with eight rowers and a coxswain, called eights. There are a wide variety of course types and formats of racing, but most elite and championship level racing is conducted on calm water courses 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long with several lanes marked using buoys.
World Rowing, also known as the World Rowing Federation, is the international governing body for rowing. Its current president is Jean-Christophe Rolland who succeeded Denis Oswald at a ceremony held in Lucerne in July 2014.
A head race is a time-trial competition in the sport of rowing. Head races are typically held in the fall, winter and spring seasons. These events draw many athletes as well as observers. In this form of racing, rowers race against the clock where the crew or rower completing the course in the shortest time in their age, ability and boat-class category is deemed the winner.
The United States Rowing Association, commonly known as USRowing, is the national governing body for the sport of Rowing in the United States. It serves to promote the sport on all levels of competition, including the selection and training of those athletes who represent the US at international level.
Rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport in the United States. The first intercollegiate race was a contest between Yale and Harvard in 1852. In the 2018–19 school year, there were 2,340 male and 7,294 female collegiate rowers in Divisions I, II and III, according to the NCAA. The sport has grown since the first NCAA statistics were compiled for the 1981–82 school year, which reflected 2,053 male and 1,187 female collegiate rowers in the three divisions. Some concern has been raised that some recent female numbers are inflated by non-competing novices.
The Harvard–Yale Regatta or Yale-Harvard Boat Race is an annual rowing race between the men's heavyweight rowing crews of Harvard University and Yale University. First contested in 1852, it has been held annually since 1859 with exceptions during major wars fought by the United States and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Race is America's oldest collegiate athletic competition, pre-dating The Game by 23 years. It is sometimes referred to as the "Yale-Harvard" regatta, though most official regatta programs brand it "Harvard-Yale".
Andrew Hancock Sudduth was one of the best United States rowers of his generation. He was a fixture on the United States national team throughout the 1980s.
Lynn Alice Jennings is a retired American long-distance runner. She is one of the best female American runners of all time, with a range from 1500 meters to the marathon. She excelled at all three of the sport's major disciplines: track, road, and cross country. She won the bronze in the Women's 10,000 metres at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. She set a world indoor record in the 5000 meter run in 1990.
Ernestine Bayer was an American rower who has been called the "Mother of Women's Rowing".
The Marin Rowing Association, located in Greenbrae, California, US is a rowing association and non-profit organization founded in 1968 by Coach R.C. "Bob" Cumming.
Graham Benton is a British indoor rower. He has won the British Rowing Indoor Championships 15 times and the World Indoor Rowing Championships six. While Benton is primarily an indoor rower, he did row on the water, representing England and competing at several Henley Royal Regattas.
Caryn Davies is an American rower. She is the winner of the 2023 Thomas Keller Medal, the most prestigious international award in the sport of rowing, and the only American to have ever won this award. She won gold medals as the stroke seat of the U.S. women's eight at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics. In April 2015 Davies stroked Oxford University to victory in the first ever women's Oxford/Cambridge boat race held on the same stretch of the river Thames in London where the men's Oxford/Cambridge race has been held since 1829. She was the most highly decorated Olympian to take part in either [men's or women's] race. In 2012 Davies was ranked number 4 in the world by the International Rowing Federation. At the 2004 Olympic Games she won a silver medal in the women's eight. Davies has won more Olympic medals than any other U.S. oarswoman. The 2008 U.S. women's eight, of which she was a part, was named FISA crew of the year. Davies is from Ithaca, New York, where she graduated from Ithaca High School, and rowed with the Cascadilla Boat Club. Davies was on the Radcliffe College (Harvard) Crew Team and was a member on Radcliffe's 2003 NCAA champion Varsity 8, and overall team champion. In 2013, she was a visiting student at Pembroke College, Oxford, where she stroked the college men's eight to a victory in both Torpids and the Oxford University Summer Eights races. In 2013–14 Davies took up Polynesian outrigger canoeing in Hawaii, winning the State novice championship and placing 4th in the long-distance race na-wahine-o-ke-kai with her team from the Outrigger Canoe Club. In 2013, she was inducted into the New York Athletic Club Hall of Fame and in 2022 into the Harvard University Athletics Hall of Fame.
Concept2, Inc. is an American manufacturer of rowing equipment and exercise machines based in Morrisville, Vermont. It is best known for its air resistance indoor rowing machines, which are considered the standard training and testing machines for competition rowers and can be found in most gyms.
The Thomas Eakins Head of the Schuylkill Regatta is a rowing race held annually during the last weekend in October on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The HOSR is the final race in the Fall Fury series, which includes the Head of the Ohio and the Head of the Connecticut. Along with the Head of the Charles and the Head of the Connecticut, the HOSR is considered one of the three “fall classics.” The HOSR is one of the marquee races in the Philadelphia Classic Regatta Series, which also includes the Stotesbury Cup Regatta, the Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Championship, the Schuylkill Navy Regatta, and the Independence Day Regatta.
Regattas such as the Head of the Charles in Boston and the Head of the Schuylkill in Philadelphia are to the rowing world what the New York Marathon and the Boston Marathon are to running.
Pavel Antonavich Shurmei is a Belarusian rower who competed at two Olympic Games and holds multiple world records on the Concept2 indoor rowing machine. He is one of the Belarusian volunteers of the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Battalion. In March 2023, it became known that a criminal case was opened in Belarus against Pavel Shurmey in absentia. Since April 2024, he is the commander of the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment.
Aliaksandr Kazubouski is a Belarusian rower. He competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. Won the world title in 2012 World Rowing Championships in Plodviv, Bulgaria. Won the European Title in 2010 European Rowing Championships in Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal. In 2011 Kazubouski, as part of the team Dynamo Brest, competed in the Stewards' Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.
Emanuele Romoli is an Italian indoor rower and coach.
Michelle Sechser is an American rower. She competed in the women's lightweight double sculls event at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the women's lightweight double sculls event.
Joel Kristian Naukkarinen is a competitive Finnish rower. Naukkarinen is a four-time world champion in indoor rowing, a ten-time World Championship medalist and a three-time European Championship medalist.
