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National team athletes swept the premier eights and singles events at the 2026 Head of the Charles. The U.S. national team women’s eight set a course record and earned bragging rights over their teammates, winning the championship eights event over a second national team eight made up of the U.S. four, pair, and alternates. On the men’s side, the two-time defending world champion Dutch eight edged Harvard by .6 second. Sam Melvin beat the defending ‘Head of Charles’ in the single, Finn Hamill, by less than a second. California Rowing Club’s Grace Joyce, an Olympian who represented the U.S. in the double at worlds this summer. won the women’s championship single event.
Nearly 12,000 athletes competed in this year’s Head of the Charles, the world’s biggest rowing event that attracts hundreds of thousands to the banks of the Charles River for three days of time-trial racing that started as a fun competition to break up off-season training in 1965.
The regatta continues to draw crews from around the world to Boston for a weekend of reunions and renewed rivalries. International entries were up 17 percent this year.
“What makes it special remains remarkably consistent,” said regatta board chair Zander Packard. “Extraordinary competition, a spectacular setting, and a rowing community that comes together from around the world.”
At the next Olympics, LA2028, medals will be awarded in 12 traditional rowing events (albeit 1,500 meters) and three Beach Sprint events, but there were far more Olympic medalists in Boston for the Charles. Most of the Tokyo Olympic-champion men’s eight from New Zealand raced together again at the Charles, as did plenty of other Olympians in various club and alumni boats.
On the collegiate level, Virginia was the fastest women’s eight for the first time since 2014, finishing third overall in the champ eights, four seconds ahead of Princeton in fourth.
“What a thrilling way to open our season at the premier celebration of rowing in the world,” Virginia head coach Wesley Ng said. “We’re fortunate to have an exceptional training environment at Virginia, but without racing, it’s difficult to know how our speed measures up against some of the best crews in the world.”
Behind the Harvard men, Cambridge University (UK), Washington, Princeton, and Dartmouth were the top men’s schools, finishing second through sixth. The U.S. national team men’s eight that finished fifth at worlds was seventh at the Charles.
Scullers from Dartmouth did well, with freshman Simeon John winning the lightweight single, alumnus Jim Crawford winning his third consecutive senior veteran (70+) singles event—nearly 20 seconds ahead of second—and lightweight alum Cooper Tuckerman finishing third in the champ single.
British prep schools St. Paul’s and Radley went one-two in the 85-boat men’s youth eight event, with Greenwich Crew third. Defending USRowing Youth National champions RowAmerica Rye won the women’s event ahead of Greenwich and Milwaukee.
Washington’s Lyle Donovan ’26, who walked on to the Husky squad and won the 2026 IRA National Championship as a member varsity eight, was presented with the Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association (IRCA) “The Oarsman” award for 2026 as the top men’s heavyweight rower in the nation.
Also celebrated at the regatta, which serves as the sport’s autumn festival and gathering of the rowing tribe, was the fifth anniversary of Arshay Cooper’s A Most Beautiful Thing Inclusion Fund. Named after the award-winning 2020 film based on Cooper’s best-selling book of the same name, the fund has awarded over a million dollars in grants and equipment to provide access to rowing through diverse programs which have introduced more than 8,000 youth to rowing, with a 100% graduation rate.
