Happy 25th - World Rowing Cup series celebrates a quarter century

“In spring 1997, some of the best regatta courses in the world will stage the Rowing World Cup, an exciting new annual international team rowing competition series designed to provide new competitive opportunities for rowers and to showcase the sport to the world.”

The 2022 World Rowing Cup I in Belgrade, Serbia, marked the beginning of the 2022 World Rowing season, but also 25 years of the World Rowing Cup series.

When the World Rowing Cup series began 25 years ago, for some it had been a long time coming.

The idea for a World Rowing Cup series grew out of the desire for standardisation in early season races. Through the 1980s, spring regattas were vastly different depending on where the competition was staged. The timing system and results differed by location, some of the crews were pure ‘club’ crews, while others were national team rowers. Television coverage was unreliable and sports presentation varied. In 1990, an attempt to standardise racing and improve television-presence was made with a men’s and women’s singles ‘World Cup’ series. This lasted until 1995, as it did not prove to be successful.

This led to taking a new approach with a three-regatta series staging ‘Olympic’ events. The Rowing World Cup series was born. Competitors could expect a standardised regatta and know that they would get good rowing competition and good racing conditions.

The series became a lead-up to the World Rowing Championships which concluded the World Rowing season. As well as racing in the 14 Olympic events, there are also ‘international’ boat classes. And with the inclusion of para rowing, those boat classes are included at some of the regattas.

In 1997, the World Rowing Cup series went to Munich, Germany, Paris, France, and Lucerne, Switzerland. Lucerne has become a regular venue for World Rowing Cup III and there have only been a couple of years when Lucerne hasn’t hosted been a host in the series (the exceptions were 2001, when Lucerne hosted the World Rowing Championships, and 2019, when they played host to the European Rowing Championships).

Points are awarded to the highest placing boat from a country. This goes towards overall points at each regatta, which establishes an overall ranking between nations over the series. In the inaugural year, Switzerland was the overall winner, then Germany went on a winning streak that lasted until 2007, when Great Britain took over as the World Rowing Cup leading nation. The British stayed on a roll until 2010 when Germany won back the top title. Since then it has been shared between Great Britain, Germany and New Zealand.

The global pandemic saw all World Rowing Cups cancelled in 2020, with a return to racing in 2021 although numbers were limited due to the difficulties of countries from outside of Europe competing.

The regattas are predominantly held in Europe but on occasion have been raced in other parts of the world. In 2001 Princeton, United States hosted World Rowing Cup I and then Sydney, Australia hosted a World Rowing Cup for 2013 and 2014.