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The World Rowing Championship is a week-long, international rowing event which has become of great importance for the international rowing community. There are eight different boat styles with 21 different classes. The boat styles include single sculls, double sculls, coxless pairs, coxed pairs, quad sculls, coxless fours, coxed fours, eights.

Sculling refers to a rower using an oar in each hand to propel the boat forward. Coxless requires rowers to propel and steer their boat using a single oar per rower. Coxed requires rowers to propel their boat with a single oar and a coxswain, i.e. the person who steers the boat, sitting in the back.

For a team to compete in this event you must be a member of a rowing federation and a citizen of that country. There are rigid regulations controlling this event.

There are 21 different boat classes for the rowing events. The non-Olympic boat classes are not competed in by national teams during Olympic years to ensure they focus their training on their corresponding races.

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Trivia

• The championship was originally hosted in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1962. It was held every 4 years until 1974 when it became an annual boating event.
• The 2018 World Rowing Championships were the first world rowing championships where the competition schedule was gender-equal.
• The 2020 and the 2021 World Rowing Championships were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Related Pages

• Other major rowing events
• More about the sport of rowing