World Rowing Quadrennial Congress 2025: A New Era for the Sport

The World Rowing Quadrennial Congress, held this past weekend in the Olympic Capital of Lausanne, Switzerland, marked a pivotal moment for the sport as delegates from across the globe gathered to shape the future of Rowing for the next four years. 62 Member Federations were registered, voted on updates on Statutes, Rules of Racing, new Council members, and received some strategic updates on the different disciplines, and initiatives around the Sport.

Three major sporting decisions were approved by the delegates : the approval of a new World Championship programme,  and the introduction of a new progression system and of a mixed boat event in the Olympic and World Championship event programmes – the Mixed Eight.

The approved changes are designed not only for rapid implementation at World Rowing events but also with a clear trajectory towards Los Angeles 2028 and future Olympic Games, pending IOC acceptance, ensuring the sport remains relevant and compelling on the world’s biggest stage.

The Mixed Eight will be officially introduced at the 2025 World Rowing Championships in Shanghai, China, after being offered as a test race at both World Rowing Cups in 2025. It will be featured at all World Rowing Championships and World Cups in the following years. In addition, the World Rowing Council has the authority to add other mixed boat classes into the World Championship event programme.

The newly adopted progression system is designed to enhance competition fairness and efficiency, optimising the racing schedule while ensuring the best crews advance in a streamlined format. By eliminating the repechages, the system aims to make events more dynamic and engaging for broadcasters, spectators, and rowing fans worldwide.

The World Championship programme is also being refined, ensuring a more competitive field of events. As part of this evolution, certain boat classes that have seen low participation in recent years are eliminated, making way for a more engaging and widely supported racing schedule.

World Rowing also reviewed the regulations for participation of women athletes in its international competitions. This followed a thorough process, involving World Rowing’s specialist commissions. On a competitive level, it was necessary to provide certainty on sex categorisation to maintain the integrity of World Rowing events, to protect the female class and ensure equal opportunities. Following constructive discussions with its Member Federations’ representatives, World Rowing decided to update it’s Rule 13 regarding Men’s and Women’s Events, to the following wording: “World Rowing will maintain two separate sex categories for rowing events : Women, for rowers who are eligible under this Rule to compete in a women’s event, and men, for rowers who are not eligible to compete in a women’s event. This shall be an open category.”

Angela Alonso Fernandez of Spain was elected as the Chair of World Rowing’s Umpiring Commission, replacing long-standing and former Executive Committee member, Patrick Rombaut of Belgium. “After 49 Congresses, 33 Joint Commission meetings, 300 seminars, 189 exams, 709 successful new umpires and 272 World Rowing and European Rowing events attended, I will start a career as ordinary World Rowing umpire” said the ever-smiling Rombaut, who received a well-deserved standing ovation from all the delegates.

The Delegates also received some key presentations: the new IOC Medical and Scientific Director (and former rower) Jane Thornton gave a keynote speech about Athletes Safeguarding and Mental Health; World Rowing’s Executive Director, Vincent Gaillard, presented its 2025 to 2028 Strategic Roadmap, followed by a presentation of the four-year budget by Treasurer Gerritjan Eggenkamp; Matt Evans, Senior Events Manager for World Rowing, presented an update about the 2025 Events Season; Nobuhisa Ishizuka, World Rowing Strategic Project Advisor, presented an update on the future Confederations Collaboration project.

The next Congress will be on Monday, 29 September in Shanghai, China, with the election of the World Rowing President on the agenda.