Paris 2024 Olympic qualification for Rowing concludes with final spots confirmed

With confirmation of all National Olympic Committees now official, World Rowing’s Paris Olympic qualification process has concluded. A total of 64 NOCs have qualified to go to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Rowing.

For the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the number of qualification places had gender equality for the second time with spots available for 251 athletes of each gender. As per the official Olympic Qualification System, after each qualification event the quota places had then to be accepted by each National Olympic Committee (NOC). There was also a list of qualification rules for each event that had to be followed in selecting the final boats.

In the men’s double sculls, Serbia confirmed their spot following their qualification at the Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification regatta (FOPQR), and rejected the men’s single sculls spot obtained at the World Rowing European Continental Qualification Regatta (EOPQR). This place was reallocated to Slovenia, based on their participation in Szeged (EOPQR) and Lucerne (FOPQR).

As France had qualified two men’s boats and one women’s boat at the 2023 World Championships, they were not eligible to take their “Host Country” places and these had to be reallocated. The reallocation of the unused host country places allowed Hungary, in the men’s single sculls, and Türkiye, in the women’s single sculls, to secure a spot at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, based on their eligibility and respective rankings. This will be Türkiye’s first-ever women’s boat competing at the Olympic Games.

Four Universality Places were made available to eligible NOCs – two in the men’s single sculls, and two in the women’s single sculls. Following a technical/performance assessment and eligibility checks, World Rowing and the IOC confirmed the proposal from the Olympic Games Tripartite Commission, to attribute the men’s single sculls quotas to Monaco and Libya, and the women’s single sculls quotas to Nicaragua and Kuwait. This will be the first-time ever that Kuwait will compete in a women’s boat class at the Olympic Games.

Overall, Romania will be sending the largest contingent of athletes to Paris, with 45 athletes across 12 boats qualified, closely followed by Great Britain and the United States, with 42 athletes each. Host nation France has qualified five boats.

The series of qualification events for this Olympic cycle started in September 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia, on the occasion of the 2023 World Rowing Championships, where the majority of qualification spots were allocated. The first continental qualification event then took place in October 2023 with the African Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta in Tunis, Tunisia.

The Americas Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta took place at the start of March 2024 on the Rio 2016 Olympic Rowing regatta course.  Next came the Asia and Oceania Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta hosted in April 2024 by Korea, followed by the European Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta in Szeged, Hungary.

The Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta rounded out the series of qualification events. It took place in mid-May at one of Rowing’s favourite venues, the Rotsee regatta course in Lucerne, Switzerland. For the first time, Lucerne saw the Final Paralympic qualification taking place at the same venue in the same regatta as the Final Olympic qualification.

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games qualification process will be completed and announced the next few weeks. Eleven quota places are still to be decided.

The next deadline is for NOC’s to enter their selected athletes by 8 July 2024 for the Olympic Games and this will be followed up by an official announcement of the entries by World Rowing.

For more information: https://worldrowing.com/event/2024-olympic-games-regatta