Rowing is one of the most difficult sports on the planet. To compete is gruelling. To win against the best of the best is even harder.
However, like all sports, barriers can be overcome, and challenges can be beaten with the same factor: money. Whether by scholarships, boats or brand new ergs, clubs can certainly help themselves on their way to vie for a coveted Henley win. But is this the only way?
The dominance of wealth
Many people have complained that rowing is same story with the same clubs winning over and over. Thames sweeps all the club events, Brookes dominates student events, and Eton and Paul’s run away with the The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup for another year. It can definitely be said that we see cycles of dominance.
I am not trying to diminish the incredible results output from these powerhouses. All these clubs earn their prestige with years of hard training and technical excellence. But there is a common thread between all the clubs at the top. Money.
Money can be used to attract talent by offering scholarships, prevalent mostly in junior rowing, which give the best talent the chance to work in facilities with the coaching and tools to win medals no matter the financial cost. Alternatively, finances can get you the tools to win races. From RP3s galore or huge international camps, these will certainly push on squads more than those who can’t afford it.
This sets off a multiplier effect of more funding as a result of success, getting clubs better rowers and more of whatever else they need to guide them to loftier heights. Meanwhile, clubs at the bottom of the rowing pyramid are stuck scraping for funds and losing their own homegrown athletes to larger programs as they chase medals and glory on the big stage. It’s a tough cycle to break.
Where does all this money come from? This is an important question to ask. Donors, financial support, and athletes themselves coughing up are the ingredients to making a boat club run, but all of these are heavily tied to success and history. No one wants to donate to a new club that hasn’t won anything.
Being the underdog
Everyone loves an underdog story, but increasingly, they seem few and far between. Spurts of glory still appear on rowing’s biggest stage, such as the story of Royal Chester RC making the final of the Britannia this year, but beating the juggernauts of rowing is only becoming harder. Money has an important part to play in this. The sport is only becoming more expensive and we’ve established how much it costs just to run a rowing club, let alone bring it to any sort of success.
The pay-to-play element of the sport only weakens the diversity of competition and makes stories like Royal Chester less likely to happen as the years go by. Not only that, but it damages the external perspective as one dominated by the same rich teams whose reign of triumph after triumph. It feels as if it will never end to those watching on and makes it hard to argue for more coverage or interest in a sport like that.
Does money win medals?
Money and medals are certainly linked. No boat club scraping for survival will achieve a Henley win in this day and age but the two don’t have to be said in the same sentence.
While all that money boosts chances of victory, some things cannot be bought. Grit and character of a boat surpass all other advantages wealth can bring. No team should accept their place at the bottom of the pile because they lack the funding. The challenge will only truly get to you if you let it and a negative mindset drags on squads more than not having shiny C2s does.
Levelling the playing field
People are the sport’s greatest asset and, without them, rowing would grind to a halt. To make any change, people need to come together to help it. If no one pushes for change, then elitism and a “wealth wins” mindset will run rampant in rowing.
Instead, we should support local clubs at the bottom, advocate for change in how British Rowing allocates funding, and bring the sport to areas where it is traditionally seen less such as the North of England. Though it may not seem like it, the actions of every person involved in rowing can cause change and, if we want to see the sport become a more diverse place riddled with change and new underdog stories, then it takes more than just words to change the landscape of rowing.
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