25 years of World Rowing Cup series: the locations

Since the launch of the World Rowing Cup series in 1997, a total of 75 (soon to be 76!) World Rowing Cups have been held across three continents. From Lucerne to Sydney, here’s everything you need to know about the cities that have hosted a World Rowing Cup.

Before the World Rowing Cup series started in 1997, a first attempt was made from 1990 to 1995 to stage “men’s and women’s singles” as a “World Cup” series of events. Some of the best scullers did compete in these events – the series went to San Diego, United States, Mexico City, Mexico, Hjelmsjoe, Sweden, or even Tampere, Finland.

A new approach was taken in 1995 to unify the season with three regattas staging the “Olympic” events and in 1997, the “Rowing World Cup” series was born, with a series of three events in iconic regatta venues: Munich (home of the 2022 European Championships), Paris (home of the 2024 Olympic Games) and Lucerne (on the Rotsee lake, the “lake of the gods”, home of the 2022 World Rowing Cup III from 8-10 July).

The World Rowing Cup was born, and since then, each year, three regattas are part of this series, with two exceptions: 2020 when all three of the World Rowing Cups were cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. As well as in 2001, the series comprised four events, starting in Princeton, USA, and continuing to Seville, Vienna and Munich – that was the only time where the World Rowing Cup series had more than three events.

Lucerne has been featured each year since the launch of the World Rowing Cup series, with only three exceptions: in 2001 (World Rowing Championships), in 2019 (European Rowing Championships) and in 2020 (COVID-19 pandemic). The Lucerne regatta is one of the most established rowing events of the last 50 years or even more. They had staked out the consistent date of the weekend following Henley.

Besides Lucerne, the most visited venues have been Munich (14 times) and Poznan (7 times). Lake Malta in Poznan is known for being one of the fastest in Europe and has seen a flurry of World Rowing Cup Best Times – six were even established in a span of two hours during the A-Finals of the 2017 World Rowing Cup II.

The World Rowing Cup Series has explored a total of 16 countries and gone to three continents (Europe, North America, Oceania). The attempts to go out of Europe unfortunately weren’t always successful – in 2001, the first World Cup of the year was staged in Princeton, USA and in 2013 and 2014 in Sydney, AUS. However, in each case the organisers found it very difficult to get the (mainly European) teams to source financing for long haul travel, to take time out of their training schedules to travel and to overcome the challenges of transporting their boats and equipment.

Next year, the World Rowing Cup series will go to Zagreb, Croatia, Varese, Italy and back to Lucerne, Switzerland.