LA 2028 – The Threshold to New Opportunities
LA2028 has determined that the venue for rowing will be in Marine Stadium in Long Beach, CA. This has been mutually agreed by the IOC and FISA. The nature of the venue limits the regatta course to 1500 meters. While some have decried the decision as a break with tradition and precedent, the opportunity for the rowing community cannot be ignored. Could we use this unprecedented change to help grow and make rowing more accessible?
When the Olympic flame in Paris is extinguished, Olympic hopefuls all over the world will start to adapt their training for a 1500m distance. From an elite perspective, the training over the next four years will close the gap between an/aerobic capacity and power. With anywhere between 60 and 90 seconds less exertion over the race course, expect bulkier rowers in Long Beach.
When the Olympic flame in Paris is extinguished, Olympic hopefuls all over the world will start to adapt their training for a 1500m distance.
While the rowers are training and bulking up, they may be considering at least one completely unfair quality to the Long Beach Olympic Rowing Regatta: while there will be medals earned, and Olympic Champions crowned, there will be no records set. Unless we use the opportunity to change how we do things, and in doing so make rowing more accessible for everyone.
For over 70 years (34 years for women) the Olympic rowing competition distance has been 2000 meters. Competitors advance through heats, (potentially repechages), semi finals and hopefully the Olympic Final. Most people agree that the 2000m distance is a gruelling test of athleticism, endurance, and will. Even the training takes something special; no other athlete in any other sport has to pursue whole body training for all physiological energy systems like a rower training for 2000 meters.
What makes us unique also hangs like an anchor around our neck, neatly placing us in a box that we stubbornly refuse to leave for the sake of what, exactly? A 2000 meter rowing race suits a specific body type and physiological makeup that sits at least 3 standard deviations beyond the mean of the world-wide population. Training for 2000 meters requires specific locations with many kilometers of rowable water that is safe and protected; rare locations that either must be discovered or dug out. When you put together all the variables you need to create an optimal athlete/training situation at any level, it is no surprise that rowing is such a small community.
What if we were to introduce other distances/events into all rowing regattas, including the Olympics? Instead of just 2000 meters, we could (for example) have an Olympic 500 meters, 1000 meters, 1500 meters (like in LA2028) and then 2000 meters across all previous boat classes. Here are the merits to consider:
Almost all other endurance sports offer variable distances in competition format: Running, swimming, cycling, kayaking, and they are all ostensibly more popular than rowing. Swimming is an excellent example of a skill-based sport that is popular recreationally and also in the Olympics. It is popular in the Olympics because of athletes like Michael Phelps. He is the most famous Olympic swimmer in recent history, arguably of all time. He is a household name and has inspired countless young swimmers to jump in the pool. Why? Because the medal count for Phelps is staggering. Michael Phelps walked away from Rio with 6(!) medals (five gold and one silver) around his neck, adding to a pile of 22 other Olympic medals from 2004, 2008, and 2012. When an Olympian stands on the medal podium again, again, again, again and again, it is more compelling for an audience seeking to share moments of human excellence. It also provides more opportunity for challengers to produce upsets. The most exciting races for Michael Phelps were the ones when he was challenged or earned silver. The Olympic rowers that are famous are recognized because of their repeat performances. (Lipă, Redgrave, Damian, Boron, etc.) The achievement of an Olympic rower is no less, indeed they only have one chance to be Olympic Champion, but from a spectator perspective, they are only on the medal stand once (rarely twice) every four years.
That one shot opportunity also deters countries from investing in a rowing team. Small countries like Jamaica know they have a better shot investing in individual athletes like Usain Bolt who can be successful over multiple events, with repeat podium appearances, than a single event rowing team (or even single sculler). If they don’t have kilometers of water to train on locally, then it just doesn’t make sense. Offer multiple events of 1500 meters or less in multiple boat classes, then the potential for success becomes more appealing and investment becomes less risky.
This is controversial, but variable distance events also resolves the debate around lightweight rowing. The difference between lightweight and open weight athletes over 2000 meters is negligible: a 6 second margin between men’s heavyweight and lightweight 4- world records (athletes that are separated by as much as 80lbs) becomes a 1.5 second margin over 500 meters (that’s a .018 second margin per pound incidentally). A category that is ostensibly meant to provide opportunity for “smaller athletes” becomes irrelevant; shorter competitive distances mitigate height/weight differences and the outcome becomes more dependent on training. Case in point, Damir Martin with a 5” height disadvantage over Mahé Drysdal would have been 1x Olympic Champion if the 2016 Rio race course was 1500 meters.
There is one kind of rowing that has been experiencing exponential growth over the last 20 years: indoor rowing. In fact there are far more people using Concept2 rowing machines than there are on the water. Much of that is because of Concept2’s robust online community for charting and ranking results. Concept2 has 14(!) separate events they recognize and chart, all divisible by sex, device and age categories. If Concept2 was to suddenly declare that they were only ranking and tracking records for 2000 meters going forward, the online rowing community would evaporate. Why is it that the rowing community dogmatically grips onto 2000 meters as a water race distance, but a substantially larger portion of the population is happily chasing after records and rankings on the erg over 500m, 1000m 10K etc, etc, etc. Clearly there is something marketable about diversity of opportunity.
There’s still more: Shorter distances make the sport more accessible at the local level. When looking to start a rowing club, many organizers will again look for substantial bodies of water, at least 2500 meters, because that is the race distance. If suddenly you can be competitive at 1500m, 1000m or even 500m, then the locations to host a rowing club (or a regatta) become more plentiful, particularly in more urban environments.
Diversity of opportunity unsurprisingly translates well into socio-economic and ethnic diversity.
Finally, rowing as an Olympic sport is in a precarious position. LA2028 choosing Long Beach as the Olympic rowing venue is speculatively a caveat and red flag to the rowing community regarding our appeal and popularity. No other sport is being asked to compromise their competitive structure or way of doing things. Gymnastics is not cutting events, Volleyball is not being asked to score up to 10. If there was no place else to play soccer/football but in Riverside 80 miles away from the city, you can be sure they would build a brand new soccer stadium and Olympic village for it. My belief is that the venue compromise exists because the audience and community is so limited. The IOC knows it, and FISA knows it.
The Olympic Championship regatta in Long Beach will be 1500 meters. While we cannot change the distance/events/format for these Olympics, we can grant those LA 2028 Olympians the opportunity to set the first world records for the 1500 meter distance. As a community from this point there is time to adapt our culture and traditions to a broader regatta format that embraces more events/distances so that 2032 Brisbane will be the biggest regatta in Olympic history, with more participants, countries, medal winners and spectators than any other preceding regatta.
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