Is Rowing too Traditional?

Rowing is objectively traditional, a ‘gentleman’s sport’, is there really a place in the future for it’s growth, beyond the previous refines of small town clubs or private school games sessions? All the history, effort and pain of athletes old and new gone in a couple of decades is something that all sporting bodies fear, spending millions of both pounds and hours trying to reverse what is often a downward spiral. 

It has always been a battle against attrition, those sports that are successful don’t necessarily have low levels of attrition; they have high levels of recruitment and unification. It’s a numbers game, whether at a macro or micro level of the sport. 

In rowing’s case, it is hard to tell. We don’t have the raw data that most sports have, and if we do it is in the minority of the sport, not the majority. Rowing is mostly supported, both financially and in terms of population, by what we like to call “senior” rowing. Whether that’s parents trying to understand their children’s hobby a little better, or nine to five workers looking for a fun ‘keep-fit’ sport, the numbers of seniors rise, filling the void of juniors who leave post-education, or in favour of a more popular recreation (rugby seems to be the most regular culprit). Whilst the importance of university rowing shouldn’t be underappreciated, it doesn’t bring in the most people to the sport and thrives in a little bubble of it’s own. 

I think in rowing there is an understanding that from the ages of 10 – 25 that it’s either racing or nothing. In my experience, there are 3 types of rowers, 1. Beginners 2. Racers 3. Recovering racers. There is no go-between racing and retired; we only start to see a recreational side in the senior squads, and those individuals/ groups are the core of the sport. To really hammer in the point that these groups are at the core of our sport, an analogy to another industry is better suited; F1 as a concept is not profitable: expensive cars, world tours and a limited athlete pool. All teams are spending millions trying to be at the top, helped by their manufacture teams that have a seemingly endless supply of money. All of this funding comes from the fact that the consumers buy hundreds of thousands of Mercedes brand cars (in addition to a cult following), which push the enormous blank check through to their F1 team. Without the average consumer, the F1 doesn’t exist. 

The same principle applies to all sports, so with this understanding, we have to wonder, what is rowing as a sport. The one advantage to rowing is its interpretation is loose but also diverse, and allows for all sorts of disciplines to emerge, personally, I think it means that it is hard to really identify what ”rowing” is. I think this leads to a confused public image which drives potential talent away, without public exposure to the rest of the rowing sphere, events such as Henley-Royal or the Boat Race exude overwhelmingly elitist agenda that exacerbates the situation. Cycling, rugby and triathlon seem to steal rowers left right and centre and I don’t think that trend will ever slow down, so we have to decide what rowing is and how as a sport we want to portray it.

In order to have a direct focus and to grow the sport we have to have a ‘focus’ and make the sport more exciting, accessible and interesting in my previous articles, I have explored some of the thoughts surrounding these topics. 

I guess the question ‘is rowing dying’ is hard to answer, there is no real answer. To most, the sport might appear growing, but there is no real way to tell, the data is scarce, and the bulk of the community is not on our social media (the only real platform that unites rowers off the water). There needs to be clarification and unification, whatever form that is. 

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Ben Stanworth

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