A spotlight on lightweight rowing: the elite athletes

The long and slow demise of lightweight rowing came to a head when it was announced that lightweight rowing would no longer feature in the 2028 LA Olympics and would instead be replaced by Beach Sprint Rowing. 

Though the decision was unsurprising to all involved in the sport,  it has impacts larger than many of us realise. 

In this series of articles, I’m going to look at the impact this will have on athletes at various levels of the sport. 

We start at the very beginning, with a very brief history of lightweight rowing. Note that I’m only looking at lightweight rowing at the international level – it was introduced at the US collegiate level a long time before it was introduced internationally. 

Lightweight rowing was first introduced to the World Championships by Fédération Internationale des Sociétés d’Aviron (FISA), now known as the World Rowing Federation, in 1974 for men and 1985 for women. Its introduction was intended “to encourage more universality in the sport especially among nations with less statuesque people”. 

It was then introduced to the Olympics at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, with the inclusion of the Women’s and Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls, and the Men’s Lightweight Coxless Four.

However, the Lightweight Four was voted out of the Olympics in 2017 by Fédération Internationale des Sociétés d’Aviron(FISA), now the World Rowing Federation, replacing it with the Women’s Coxless Four, making the 2020 Tokyo Olympics the first Olympics in which men and women had the same number of rowing events. 

This brings us to today, when it was announced that the Paris 2024 Olympics would be the last time the Lightweight Double event is run at the Olympics.

Its removal comes as no surprise – the IOC was no fan of the weight classes in sports outside combat sports and had tried to remove lightweight rowing from the Olympic programme 20 years ago. 

We’re going to look at lightweight athletes at all levels of the sport to discuss the impacts of the decision.

Speaking to the athletes themselves, the removal of lightweight rowing is a source of deep frustration.

We spoke to two elite athletes to get their perspectives on the changes.

Imogen Grant, GB lightweight rower, holds records in both the Lightweight Double and Single.

Nikhil Ramaraju, a Freshman Harvard lightweight rower, has previously represented the US at the U19 level.

Speaking about the removal of lightweight rowing from the Olympics, Grant said: “Its removal from the Olympics is a sad day. It is often the closest and most exciting racing, and enables wider participation.” 

Ramarju echoed that sentiment: “It’s pretty unfortunate that the committee is discontinuing the event. Apart from just being a lightweight, the event had incredible depth and I can’t say I know anyone that would say otherwise.

“With so many lightweight athletes the talent funneling into the event made it so exciting to watch”.

The technical prowess of the lightweight crews is something to behold, as one of the very few things separating lightweight crews is their technique.

Most rowing coaches would show a video of a lightweight crew over a video of an openweight crew to demonstrate the technique they are trying to achieve. 

Another big issue caused by the removal of lightweight rowing is the athletes themselves, what do they do instead? Is it feasible for them to compete as openweight, do they switch to coastal, or do they quit elite rowing altogether?

For Grant, she’s excited for what lies ahead. She said: “After Paris, quite simply I won’t be a lightweight any more. There will be no path for me to compete at a level I would want to any more, and the idea of giving it a go as an open-weight is exciting to me.”

With her third place at this year’s Great Britain Rowing Team (GBRT) April Trials, a Henley final in the Single Sculls, and three Blue Boats and one Lightweight Blue behind her, she can put up a fight against openweight athletes.

But time will tell whether she can compete at a world championship level.

While lightweight rowing is being removed from the Olympic Programme, beach sprints is being added.

Grant is optimistic about the introduction of the new discipline. She said: “Despite lightweight rowing being removed, the upside is that hopefully, the number of events will remain the same or even increase with the addition of beach sprints”.

But others did not echo Grant’s positivity towards beach sprints.

Ramaraju said: “I think the removal of lightweight rowing for coastal rowing doesn’t make much sense. I get if the Olympic committee was just removing lightweight events to save money by having fewer athletes but adding an event that is not close to the same level of competition is disheartening.

“Maybe one day coastal rowing will make sense but just the level one has to be to make the Olympics in a lightweight boat is so much more than coastal and it seems like a waste to value it more.”

With 32 male and 32 female athletes being able to qualify for Olympic beach sprints, which is the same as for the Lightweight Double in Paris, it is clear that the quota has had little impact on the removal of lightweight rowing from the programme.

However, with Beach Sprints having existed for such short of a time, we may have to give it some time to see how it develops. With a mixed event as well as open and women’s, it will provide an opportunity to see some exciting racing. 

Will lightweight rowing’s removal impact Ramaraju and Grant?

For Ramaraju, the lightweight rowing scene is stronger than ever at the collegiate level and this decision seems to have had no impact on the scene.

For Grant, only time will tell. It’s an exciting prospect to have her on the international scene as an openweight, but we won’t know how competitive she is until she takes to the water.

In my next article, I’m speaking to Joseph Donnelly, Vietnam National Team Coach, to understand the wider ramifications of the decision to remove lightweight rowing from the Olympics and how Olympic rowing will become more Western-centric as a result.

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