Monday Debrief: Lucerne World Rowing Cup Produces Godlike Regatta

Lucerne always seems to deliver. With a bumper entry and memorable results, the curtain fell on the 2026 World Rowing Cup season at the weekend, bringing to an end five weeks of intense international competition.

The stage is now set for enthralling European and World Championships later on in the summer. Before then. Here’s the Monday debrief.

USA triumphant

It seems astonishing, but the USA have never previously won an overall World Rowing Cup trophy. The first World Rowing Cup series as we know it took place in 1997, and Germany won that – and the next nine editions. In 2007, Great Britain won their first trophy. New Zealand was the first nation that wasn’t either Germany or Great Britain to lift the trophy, in 2014. Australia won it in 2019 and the Netherlands in 2023 and 2025.

So the USA is only the sixth nation in history to take the overall trophy. They were helped enormously by the fact that their leading rivals, Great Britain and the Netherlands, both skipped Plovdiv, but they also put together a string of good performances in Lucerne, with 11 crews in nine A-finals. Their women’s sweep squad particularly stands out, with every member of the team winning at least one medal in both Plovdiv and Lucerne.

The triple medallists

Just two crews raced at all three World Rowing Cups this year: the Czech and Chilean women’s pairs. They also both won medals at all three races. Czechia picked up one medal of each colour, while Chile won one silver and two bronzes. Both crews are in fine form coming into the sharp end of the season, and in the absence of the USA and Chile, Czechia certainly have a decent chance at a European medal in Varese.

Romania raced a men’s four at each regatta, but the line-ups changed. They did come away with silver medals in both Plovdiv and Lucerne, and fourth place in Seville meant they ended up level on points with the British men’s four.

Looking ahead

Next up on the calendar for most of the crews racing in Lucerne are the European Rowing Championships and the World Rowing Championships. At this point there seem to be few crews that are bankers for world titles.

Oliver Zeidler in the men’s single sculls, Ben Pritchard in the PR1 men’s single sculls, Kenia Lechuga in the lightweight women’s single sculls, Germany in the PR3 mixed double sculls, the New Zealand men’s pair, the British men’s four and the US women’s four would probably all be pretty safe bets for those of a gambling tendency. But with several weeks of training still to come, a lot could still change.

Indeed the gap between Seville and Lucerne already showed how much crews can improve in a few weeks, or how a couple of crew changes can radically improve speed. That was already demonstrated in Lucerne with different line-ups from several nations. Only the Netherlands have already announced their World Championship crews, so expect more shuffling around before Amsterdam.

And even further ahead …

The 2027 World Rowing Championships take place in Lucerne next year. It is the first time since 2001 that the pinnacle event of the season is being held on the Lake of the Gods, and it is also the first qualifying event for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It will be a very special regatta, and one for the history books.

But let’s hope it’s a bit cooler than this weekend. It was tough for the athletes on the water, and for the team staff, and there was liberal use of ice vests, ice cubes, cold towels and more. It was also tough for the two Lucerne mascots – the cow, for the World Rowing Cups, and the world championships beaver. They coped marvellously, but it must have been stifling inside both suits. Have a cold drink, everyone, and take a breath – there’s lots of the season still to come.