“Many events have been staged safely in Austria at Linz-Ottensheim, the site of the 2019 World Rowing Championships, and the safety team for the course was very experienced. Before the event that year, significant work had been undertaken, including building a new boathouse and enlarging the boat park area, which featured a dedicated Para rowing area and pontoon.
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Because of limited water space for racing and training, traffic patterns were discussed and tested extensively. In 2019, a training area was created for Para singles because often they had little time to prepare, since they tend to be the slowest boats in the regatta.
Safety during training and racing was taken extremely seriously by the organizing committee and World Rowing. Although regatta safety is the legal responsibility of the organizing committee, it is carefully elaborated with the many years of experience of World Rowing’s events team. This includes such matters as the number of safety boats and professional patrolling during training and racing.
Now to the tragic case of Dzmitry Ryshkevich. His was an amazing survival story. In 2003, when he was 17, he was run over by a car in his hometown of Grodno, Belarus. Many of his vertebrae were crushed, many of his body organs were damaged or had to be removed, and he hit his head hard and suffered brain damage. The fact that he survived was miraculous enough, but then he required numerous surgeries, and his recovery called on the total support of his family and friends. He showed great courage to switch to Para rowing, which he began in 2007 after competing in other Para sports. In Beijing in 2008, the first Paralympic Games to feature Para rowing, he won a silver medal.
In 2019, Dzmitry went on his first training row on the opening day of training at Linz-Ottenheim. When he reached the end of the training lane for Para singles and began to turn his boat around, his upper body swayed to one side, which caused the rigger to break off the starboard side (there was no damage on the port side because the nuts and screws were missing).
The boat capsized, he went under, and, unable to right himself, sank. His very developed upper body and high center of gravity made it difficult for him to maneuver in the water. Safety motorboats rushed to the scene in accordance with protocol, and divers began searching.
Since the regatta course had been dredged recently to return its depth to three meters, the water was cloudy, and it was difficult to see the farther down the divers went. In addition, the water level of the Danube changed each night because of a hydroelectric dam at the 1,000-meter mark, which stirred the bottom sediment. Scuba divers summoned to the accident site from all over the area continued hunting for hours, but it was too late to save Dzmitry. It was a tragic experience that underscored the critical role and responsibility of coaches and support staff in Para rowing.
So far, there has been no public disclosure of the conclusions of the accident investigation since it’s considered a private matter between Austrian authorities and the Ryshkevich family.
In corresponding with Dzmitry’s father at the end of the inquiry, however, I learned that the police report stated that after off-loading Dzmitry’s boat in Linz and setting it up for training, his coach neglected to install the screws on the port side of the wing riggers. Although the coach was indicted for negligence in Austria, he has avoided prosecution so far by staying in Belarus since the accident. The organizing committee and World Rowing were not cited in the inquiry for any negligence or lack of due diligence.
A full review of safety at World Rowing events by an independent water-safety advisory firm based in the UK had been planned since 2017. The review was approved in 2019, but its start was delayed because of Covid event cancellations in 2020. In October 2021, a report covering five areas and recommending 34 actions was delivered to World Rowing for consideration. No significant errors or omissions in safety protocols were identified, but things such as better systems, more documentation, and appointing an overall safety officer were highlighted.
The recommendations were then reviewed by the various World Rowing commissions that are involved in safety, regatta organization, and equipment. Recommendations specific to Para rowing were passed to the Para Rowing Commission, and I believe most of them were adopted during 2022.”
