World Rowing Championships

The World Rowing Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). It is a week-long event held at the end of the northern hemisphere summer and in non-Olympic years is the highlight of the international rowing calendar.

History[]

The first event was held in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1962.^[1][2] The event then was held every four years until 1974, when it became an annual competition. Also in 1974, Men's lightweight and Women's open weight events were added to the championships.

Initially, Men's events were 2000 metres long and Women's events 1000 metres. At the 1984 World Championships in Montreal, Canada, Women's lightweight demonstration events were raced over a 2000-metre course for the first time. In 1985, Women's lightweight events were officially added to the schedule and all Men's and Women's events were contested over a 2000-metre course.

Since 1996, during (Summer) Olympic years, the World Rowing Junior Championships are held at the same time.

In 2002 adaptive rowing events were introduced for the following classes of disability: LTA (legs, trunk and arms), TA (trunk, arms), and A (arms-only). In 2009 the A category was replaced by AS (arms and shoulders), and an ID (intellectually disabled) category was added (but then removed after the 2011 Championships). From 2017 the designations AS, TA, and LTA have been changed to PR1, PR2, and PR3.^[3]

Boats[]

Rowing takes place in 21 different boat classes, apart from during Olympic years when only non-Olympic boat classes race. National teams generally take less interest in the non-Olympic events, as the Olympic events are considered the "premier" events.

The table below shows the boat classes, "O" indicates the boat races at both the Olympics and World Championships. "WC" indicates this is only a World Championship event. After 2007, the coxed fours (4+) no longer runs as a world championship event. Similarly after 2011 the women's coxless four was no longer included, but it was reintroduced in 2013. Lightweight men's eight was removed after 2015.

As a result of the IOC's aim for gender parity, it has been agreed that for 2020 onwards the lightweight men's coxless four will be removed from the Olympics and replaced by women's coxless four.^[4]

At the 2017 FISA Ordinary Congress there were further revisions, removing M2+ and LM4- from the World Championships, and reinstating LW2-.^[5]

Editions[]

World Rowing Championships have been held since 1962, first every four years and since 1974 annually. Due to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic, the World Rowing Federation cancelled all international events for 2020 on 9 April 2020, some time after the 2020 Summer Olympics and Summer Paralympics had been postponed by one year. This included the 2020 World Rowing Championships regatta scheduled for Bled in Slovenia.^[6] On 11 July 2021, the World Rowing Federation announced that it had accepted the request by the Shanghai Organising Committee to also cancel the October 2021 World Rowing Championships that were to be held in Shanghai, China.^[7] On 14 July, after having received feedback from member organisations about the importance of international competitions, the World Rowing Federation confirmed that the cancellation of the 2021 championships in unavoidable.^[8]

Edition Year Host City Country Events 1 1962 Lucerne   Switzerland 7 2 1966 Bled  Yugoslavia 7 3 1970 St. Catharines  Canada 7 4 1974 Lucerne   Switzerland 17 5 1975 Nottingham  Great Britain 17 6 1976 Villach  Austria 3 7 1977 Amsterdam  Netherlands 17 8 1978 Copenhagen  Denmark 4 8 1978 Cambridge  New Zealand 14 9 1979 Bled  Yugoslavia 18 10 1980 Hazewinkel  Belgium 4 11 1981 Munich  West Germany 18 12 1982 Lucerne   Switzerland 18 13 1983 Duisburg  West Germany 18 14 1984 Montreal  Canada 8 15 1985 Hazewinkel  Belgium 21 16 1986 Nottingham  Great Britain 21 17 1987 Copenhagen  Denmark 21 18 1988 Milan  Italy 7 19 1989 Bled  Yugoslavia 22 20 1990 Tasmania  Australia 22 21 1991 Vienna  Austria 22 22 1992 Montreal  Canada 8 23 1993 Račice  Czech Republic 23 24 1994 Indianapolis  United States 23 25 1995 Tampere  Finland 24 26 1996 Motherwell  Great Britain 10 27 1997 Aiguebelette  France 24 28 1998 Cologne  Germany 24 29 1999 St. Catharines  Canada 24 30 2000 Zagreb  Croatia 10

Edition Year Host City Country Events 31 2001 Lucerne   Switzerland 24 32 2002 Seville  Spain 24+2 33 2003 Milan  Italy 24+4 34 2004 Banyoles  Spain 9+3 35 2005 Kaizu  Japan 23+3 36 2006 Dorney  Great Britain 23+4 37 2007 Munich  Germany 23+4 38 2008 Ottensheim  Austria 8 39 2009 Poznań  Poland 22+5 40 2010 Cambridge  New Zealand 22+5 41 2011 Bled  Slovenia 22+5 42 2012 Plovdiv  Bulgaria 7 43 2013 Chungju  South Korea 22+5 44 2014 Amsterdam  Netherlands 22+5 45 2015 Aiguebelette  France 22+4 46 2016 Rotterdam  Netherlands 7+1 47 2017 Sarasota  United States 21+5 48 2018 Plovdiv  Bulgaria 20+9 49 2019 Ottensheim  Austria 20+9 – 2020 cancelled Bled  Slovenia – – 2021 cancelled Shanghai  China – 50 Račice  Czech Republic 51 Belgrade  Serbia 52 St. Catharines  Canada 53 Sydney  Australia

Multiple editions[]

Times hosted	Host country
4	Switzerland, Canada, Great Britain, Germany
3	Yugoslavia, Austria, Netherlands
2	New Zealand, Belgium, Italy, Spain, France, Bulgaria, United States, Denmark
1	South Korea, Australia, Czech Republic, Finland, Croatia, Japan, Poland, Slovenia

All-time medal table[]

• 1962–2019 (not including para-rowing, for which some records dating back to 2002 are not available)^{[9][failed verification][unreliable source?]}

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	East Germany	94	45	25	164
2	Italy	85	67	52	204
3	Germany	82	72	70	224
4	Great Britain	66	72	59	197
5	United States	65	73	88	226
6	New Zealand	50	31	26	107
7	Australia	47	44	41	132
8	Soviet Union	35	44	29	108
9	Romania	34	43	44	121
10	Denmark	34	27	33	94
11	France	30	44	26	100
12	Canada	28	34	44	106
13	West Germany	24	23	25	72
14	Netherlands	18	40	43	101
15	China	16	9	22	47
16	Switzerland	15	15	15	45
17	Norway	14	7	12	33
18	Poland	12	21	15	48
19	Ireland	12	8	7	27
20	Belarus	11	6	10	27
21	Bulgaria	9	12	14	35
22	Austria	8	6	10	24
23	Czech Republic	7	15	11	33
24	Greece	7	10	10	27
25	Croatia	7	5	5	17
26	Spain	6	7	16	29
27	Slovenia	4	5	5	14
28	Hungary	4	4	6	14
29	Ukraine	3	6	5	14
30	Finland	3	4	4	11
31	Lithuania	3	2	2	7
32	Belgium	2	7	8	17
33	Sweden	2	4	6	12
34	South Africa	2	2	4	8
35	Russia	1	8	9	18
36	Chile	1	3	1	5
37	Japan	1	2	1	4
38	Argentina	1	1	5	7
39	Serbia and Montenegro	1	1	1	3
40	Brazil	1	0	2	3
41	Czechoslovakia	0	11	11	22
42	Cuba	0	2	1	3
43	Estonia	0	1	6	7
44	Serbia	0	1	5	6
45	Yugoslavia	0	1	4	5
46	Slovakia	0	1	2	3
47	Turkey	0	0	2	2
48	Portugal	0	0	1	1
	Zimbabwe	0	0	1	1
Totals (49 nations)		845	846	844	2535

Multiple medallists[]

Athlete	Nation	Born				Tot.
Daniele Gilardoni	Italy	1976	11	1	1	13
Matthew Pinsent	Great Britain	1970	10	0	2	12
Steve Redgrave	Great Britain	1962	9	2	1	12
Franco Sancassani	Italy	1974	9	2	1	12
Francesco Esposito	Italy	1955	9	1	1	11
Giuseppe Di Capua	Italy	1958	8	3	1	12
Andrea Re	Italy	1963	8	1	2	11

Scull and Sweep medalists[]

incomplete list

Rower	Total		Scull		Sweep		Disciplines
	# of disciplines		# of disciplines		# of disciplines		Scull	Sweep
Michiel Bartman	3	4	1	1	2	3	M4x	M4+, M8+
Karolien Florijn	2	2	1	1	1	1	W4x	W4-
Ronald Florijn	3	4	1	1	1	2	M2x	M4-, M8+
Daniele Gilardoni	2	13	1	12	1	1	LM4x	LM8+
Mario Gyr	2	2	1	1	1	1	LM2x	LM4-
Katherine Grainger	5	8	3	6	2	2	W1x, W2x, W4x	W2-, W8+
Kathleen Heddle	4	5	2	3	2	2	W2x, W4x	W2-, W8+
Elisabeta Lipă	5	13	3	9	2	4	W1x, W2x, W4x	W2-, W8+
Marnie McBean	5	7	2	3	3	4	W2x, W4x	W2-, W4-, W8+
Nico Rienks	2	4	1	2	1	2	M2x	M8+
Franco Sancassani	3	12	1	10	2	2	LM4x	LM2-, LM8+
Simon Schürch	2	2	1	1	1	1	LM2x	LM4-
Greg Searle	4	7	1	1	3	6	M1x	M2+, M4-, M8+
Diederik Simon	2	2	1	1	1	1	M4x	M8+
Martin Sinković	3	7	2	5	1	2	M2x, M4x	M2-
Valent Sinković	3	7	2	5	1	2	M2x, M4x	M2-
Olivia van Rooijen	2	3	1	3	1	1	W4x	W8-
Henk-Jan Zwolle	2	3	1	1	1	2	M2x	M8+
Michael Buchheit	3	5	1	1	2	4	LM2x	LM4-, LM8+

Marin and Valent Sinković are the first crew in rowing history that in the same composition won gold medals at World Championship in sweep and scull rowing.^[10]

References[]

External links[]

• World Rowing website