How these nations got all four boats to the Paralympics

To qualify even one boat for the Paralympic Games is challenging for countries, but to qualify in all four boat classes is a true accomplishment. Of the 25 nations that qualified for rowing at the Tokyo Paralympic Games three countries – Ukraine, United States and Brazil – have four boats racing.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to managing a national para rowing programme, however these three success programmes share their words of wisdom.

“Promote para rowing in your country and raise interest in this sport,” says Ukraine’s para rowing head coach, Zagreba Viacheslav. “Involve as many people, especially young people, as possible.”

Brazilian Rowing Federation’s Paralympic rowing coordinator, Fernando Carvalho Neto emphasises the importance of preparing rowing clubs to be equipped to receive para athletes. Neto suggests that potential athletes could be identified in existing para sport organisations.

For the para high performance director at USRowing Ellen Minzner, it depends on the local context. “It is hard to offer advice since every country has its challenges, including ours. For us, we are looking to make it fun and provide more intermediate steps for athletes to have the proper background of training and racing by the time they get to the Games.

“We want to develop more depth in each event,” says Minzner about the post-Tokyo quadrennium. Indeed, both United States men’s and women’s PR1 singles qualified for their place on the USA Paralympic Team uncontested at the domestic trials event.

“With an open system, we rely on club coaches to bring athletes forward, but it still can be more streamlined so athletes and coaches have information earlier in the process.  We also hope to offer more domestic racing for para rowers,” adds Minzner.

In the United States, the national rowing federation (USRowing) oversees para rowing as part of its senior rowing team, but receives financial support and other resources from the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee. Brazil follows a similar system where the National Paralympic Committee (NPC)  provides financial support to the rowing federation who is responsible for the management and selection of the para rowing team.

“This system is very good, but could be improved by developing more state centralised systems in Brazil,” says Neto. It is worth noting that both Brazil and the United States are in the top five of largest countries in the world by total area, meaning that even domestic travel has a high cost of time and money. Because of this, a strong network of clubs and state systems is critical in the success of their national para rowing programmes.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine the para rowing team is managed very differently. Viacheslav is employed at Invasport, a sport organisation for persons with disabilities. Invasport is under the supervision of the NPC of Ukraine.

“The existing system is very effective and many NPCs have expressed a desire to adopt and use experience of Ukrainian NPC,” says Viacheslav. The success of this centralised system shows— the Ukrainian team were represented in three of the four Paralympic A-finals, narrowly missing out on the last finals spot in the PR3 Mixed Coxed Four in a tightly contested repechage.

Talent identification is a challenge for many federations but plays a key role in their long-term strategic planning. Neto shares, “With the National Federation we have elaborated a long plan until 2028 called the ‘National Paralympic Rowing System’. The Federation will provide boats and oars as well as arrange seminars for coaches and volunteers. This is part of our long-term strategic plan to attract new talent in Paralympic rowing.”

Talent ID will play a key role in developing sport class depth in the United States where there is a strong reliance on club coaches to bring prospective para rowers forward. Still, Minzner believes that domestic talent ID could be improved with an increase in local competition opportunities and better awareness of para rowing among USA club coaches.

As a much smaller country, Ukrainian talent identification strategy centres around improving the visibility of the sport.

“The Ukrainian Championships is held regularly during which possible new candidates are identified,” says Viacheslav. The fittest new candidates are invited to be members of the reserve para rowing team. As the Ukrainian para rowing system is managed by the NPC, they are better able to identify athletes from other para sports. Athletes from other sports are invited for national classification and assessment to gauge their fit in para rowing.

Para rowing continues to grow world-wide and as a relatively new branch of rowing there are still many avenues and approaches to be developed.