Last tickets to Paris: Crews prepare for World Rowing Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta

With the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games just over two months away, most of the crews who will be competing have already qualified their boats through the World Rowing Championships, or the various continental qualification regattas. The last chance for remaining crews to qualify takes place at the 2024 World Rowing Final Olympic & Paralympic Qualification Regatta (FOPQR) in Lucerne, Switzerland from 19-21 May.

Also dubbed the ‘Last Chance Regatta’, this final opportunity to qualify will see 183 crews competing for the remaining 37 spots (30 Olympic and seven Paralympic).

There are two quota places in each of the Olympic boat classes, with the exception of the men’s and women’s single sculls, which have a third quota place that will be allocated to the highest ranked NOC that has not qualified any boats at the World Rowing Championships or Continental Qualification regattas or will not be amongst the top two qualifiers (irrespective of any Olympic boat class) at the FOQR Lucerne. This is due to the reallocation of the host country quota places.

For the Paralympic classes, only the top finisher will book their ticket to Paris in the PR1 single sculls and the PR3 mixed double sculls, whereas the top two in the PR2 mixed double sculls and PR3 mixed coxed four will race for their nation at the Games.

The largest entries come in the men’s single sculls, with 31 entries. Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist Kjetil Borch will look to qualify for his fourth Games after battling injuries and multiple surgeries the last few years. On the women’s side, 2018 and 2019 World Champion Sanita Puspure is back in the single after competing in the women’s four and women’s double sculls throughout the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

The lightweight women’s double sculls will see the defending Olympic gold and silver medallists, Italy’s Rodini and Cesarini and France’s Tarantola and Bove, looking for the chance to defend their titles. They will face tough competition from the European silver medallists, Greece’s Kontou and Fitsiou.

In both the men’s and women’s eights, four boats will contest the regatta. Denmark and Italy will look to qualify their first ever women’s eights for the Games, while Austria will do the same on the men’s side.

Lucerne will host the Final Paralympic Qualification Regatta for the first-time ever. Brazil’s Rene Campos Pereira is the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist in the PR1 men’s single sculls, but will be up against Michel Munoz Malagon of Mexico. While Munoz Malagon finished first at his continental qualification regatta, he was not attributed the quota place due to qualification rules – the Mexican PR3 mixed double sculls also finished first and the national federation had to choose which boat of the two would qualify.

There is no limit to how many crews a nation can qualify through the FOPQR, contrary to the continental qualification regattas.