As the president of World Rowing, Jean-Christophe Rolland might have the toughest job in rowing. Fortunately, he’s an Olympic-champion oarsman, so he has the grit, determination, and resilience to endure discomfort, to work cooperatively, and to keep going when others quit.

The affable Frenchman, frustrated and infuriated—as he says in the Rowing News interview in the June issue—by the failure of most national teams to support the World Rowing Cup by showing up and racing, has managed to keep rowing’s place in the Olympic Games through his work on the International Olympic Committee.

Unfortunately, that “go along to get along” approach has cost lightweight rowing’s place in the Olympics as well as undermining the integrity of Olympic rowing by shortening the race distance to 1,500 meters for the LA 2028 Games.

Because so much work went into arriving at that bad decision, Rolland says, the decision must stand. That’s Old World thinking at its worst, especially since a proper Olympic regatta could be held on the purpose-built world-class venue at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota (just as the LA 2028 whitewater canoe and kayak events will be held in Oklahoma City, and the Paris Games surfing events were held in Tahiti).

As reported throughout the June issue of the magazine, rowing is thriving and more popular than ever, just not at the international elite level. But as I write in the June issue of Rowing News, our sport faces a big challenge—the coming “demographic cliff.” The good news is that on both the Olympic and domestic levels, there are solutions. I offer 10 of them, including “row-up music” and crews picking their own lanes before the start, to make our sport even better.

These potential improvements build on what is already a great sport. Tom Matlack’s exciting recollection of the journey that his Wesleyan crew took to victory in 1986 tells the story of what rowing has to offer all of us: Hard work and working together lead to success.

With the announcement of bids and seedings set, the IRA and NCAA national championship regattas will decide the collegiate national champions May 30-June 1in New Jersey.

On Camden’s Cooper River at the IRA regatta, Cal is the favorite for the men’s heavyweight title, while Harvard is for the lightweights and Princeton is for the women’s lightweight title.

On Mercer Lake in West Windsor, Stanford is the top seed and overwhelming favorite for the 2025 NCAA Division I Women’s Rowing Championship. Cal Poly Humboldt is the top seed in Division II, and Tufts is the top D III seed.

A peak audience of 2.82 million people watched the BBC coverage of The Boat Race in April. A peak audience of 2.18 million watched the Women’s Boat Race, a 14-percent leap in viewership over 2024, making it the most-watched female sporting event in the United Kingdom. In the 79th Women’s Boat Race – and on the 10th anniversary of the Women’s Boat Race first taking place on the Tideway – Cambridge beat Oxford by 2.5 lengths in a time of 19:25 after a dramatic clash of oars resulted in a restart early on. This represented the first stop and restart ever seen in the Women’s Boat Race.

Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Fla. hosts the Big 12 Rowing Championships once again on May 18, one of several collegiate conference championships that, along with youth and high school racing, make the weekend the biggest one of the month: over 3,800 crews racing in a dozen regattas in addition to all the college championships, according to RegattaCentral, the leading rowing registration service.

According to RegattaCentral‘s Steve Lopez, even more crews registered—over 4,000 across 12 regattas—to race on the April 12 weekend, which included the 5th Manny Flick regatta on Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River and the Florida Scholastic Rowing Association’s sculling championships at Nathan Benderson Park.

“The level of competition in the Big 12 is incredibly high, and we anticipate some truly exciting races,” said Brad Clements, Director of Competition and Events for the Big 12. “This venue consistently provides an exceptional racing environment for our student-athletes.”

“It is an honor to host the Big 12 Women’s Rowing Championship once again,” said Bruce Patneaude, Chief Operating Officer of Nathan Benderson Park,. “This event highlights the park’s capability to host major national sporting competitions and contributes significantly to the local economy.”

Eleven Big Ten schools will race four varsity eights and three varsity fours on Indianapolis’s Eagle Creek to decide their conference championship based on team points scoring far deeper than the NCAA’ Division I scheme of two eights and a four. Michigan is the two-time defending champion, racing this year against Big Ten newcomers Washington, USC, and UCLA.

Undefeated Stanford is the current favorite for the national championship and will race in the Atlantic Coast Conference Rowing Championship this year as part of the major athletic conference realignment that has swept college sports. Cal joins Stanford at the ACCs, held  on Clemson’s Lake Hartwell for the 20th time and the first since 2022. The event was held at Lake Wheeler in Raleigh, North Carolina, the past two seasons. Syracuse enters as defending champion after last year’s tie on points was decided by the Orange’s victory over Virginia in the first varsity eight grand final.

The Ivy League ties the ACC and Big Ten with seven members ranked in the latest Pocock CRCA Coaches Poll top-25, and contests the 2025 Ivy League Women’s Rowing Championship in Camden / Pennsauken, N.J. The men’s Ivy League championship is decided as part of the Eastern Sprints, Sunday, May 18 on Lake Quinsigamond, in Worcester, Mass.

The West Coast Conference Rowing Championship will be held May 16-17 on Lake Natoma in Sacramento / Gold River, Calif. There are nine rowing programs in the WCC, comprised of five full-time members (Gonzaga, Portland, Saint Mary’s, San Diego, Santa Clara) as well as four affiliates in Creighton, Oregon State, Sacramento State, and Washington State.

California, Gonzaga, Oregon State, San Diego, Santa Clara, Stanford, UC San Diego, and Washington will race the inaugural Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Men’s Rowing Championship May 17-18 on Lake Natoma. Most of the programs come to the MPSF, which added men’s rowing as its 15th sport, from the Pac-12, as conference realignments scattered traditional rivals to new leagues. Santa Clara, Gonzaga, and UC San Diego rowed in the Western Sprints. Washington and Cal combined have won 18 of the last 25 IRA National Championships for men’s heavyweight rowing.

The American College Rowing Association National Championship Regatta runs May 16-18 on Melton Lake, in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Over 2,000 college club rowers compete in this year’s ACRA championship, making it bigger than the IRA and NCAA national championships combined.