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By Martin Cross
The sport of rowing might never be the same again. That at least is the hope of World Rowing after it announced the stellar line-up of rowers who will contest a new ‘mano a mano’ 500m sprint format regatta to be held in downtown Shanghai on September 26th and 27th.
Team USA will travel to the Suzhou Creek, with a very strong lineup. They will hope to lift the inaugural trophy on the spot where Shanghai Rowing Club was first formed back in 1863. And why not? When the World Rowing Cup season concluded in Lucerne last month, the United States won the overall trophy for the first time.
Isa Darvin expressed the anticipation of the American squad when she said, “All of us were looking for an excuse to head back to China after our experiences at last year’s world championships.” And the 26-year-old from Madison Wisconsin, went on to explain, “We’re excited to compete against the world’s best.”
Josy Verdonkschot, the McLane Family Chief High Performance Officer for USRowing underlined this and told Rowing News, “Although it is impossible to make any predictions, I am sure our athletes will not settle for the minor places.”
The 69-year-old has selected a team of eleven US rowers and scullers to contest the following events: men’s and women’s singles and the men’s and women’s double sculls. Also, with an eye to their future inclusion in the Olympic programme, the mixed double scull and the mixed eight. And Verdonkschot too, is excited to be Shanghai bound. “The event and its format are a great way to engage the audience and highlight our top athletes, so I am really happy that our team will be part of it.”
Women’s four world champions Teal Cohen and Kate Knifton—both from Texas—will lead Team USA, with the winners of the men’s pairs trials: Chris Carlson and Sam Sullivan, from New Hampshire and Massachusetts, getting the ‘shout’ from Verdonkschot as well. But the whole US team knows that they will face very strong opposition.
World Rowing has made sure that virtually all of the world’s top rowers will be in Shanghai. Out of the 22 Team GB and Team Netherlands competitors, five are world champions and, in addition, no fewer than five are Olympic champions. The prominent names are those of the sculler Imogen Grant for GB and Finn Florijn for the Netherlands – both took Paris sculling gold medals.
Team Romania—which took the mixed eights title back in Shanghai in 2025—has weighed in by selecting no fewer than four Paris Olympic champions and three world champions from that mixed eight. The other teams come from Germany, Ireland, and, of course, China.
All these seven national teams will have to face the intriguing addition of an eighth squad: ‘Team World’, made up of high quality athletes like Stefanos Ntouskos, the 2025 world singles champion and winner of the same event at the Tokyo Olympics. Alongside him will be the powerful Serbian double of Martin Macovic—the former Cal Golden Bear—and Nikolai Pimenov.
“We already have experience participating as members of the World Team at the Lenny Peters Cup in North Carolina,” explained Pimenov. The 29-year-old went on to say, “It is also a great opportunity to meet and build friendships with athletes from other national teams in person.”
The chance to connect post-2026 World Rowing Championships (August 24-20) is a massive motivation. Though it must be said, the payment of around $4,500 appearance money and the prospect of $8,500 prize-money—to share between the first three places, in most events—must have helped.
The event has been organized by World Rowing in partnership with the China Rowing Association, the Shanghai Administration of Sports, and the Donghao Lansheng Group, organizers of the annual Shanghai marathon. Teams will be supported through travel, accommodation, equipment, appearance fees, and prize money.
Given the lack of a major title sponsor for World Rowing, the importance of this event can’t be overstated. “This is about more than racing—it is about taking rowing beyond its traditional venues, connecting with new fans, and putting the spotlight directly on our sport,” said World Rowing President Jean-Christophe Rolland.
The 58-year-old Sydney Olympic champion will hope that the presence in Team China of two of their Tokyo Olympic champions and Shanghai residents, Ling Zhang and Yunxia Chen, will draw the crowds to create a thrilling atmosphere. But the event will have to make its mark on a wider global TV audience.
Pimenov agreed and added, “The head-to-head duel format, especially in a sprint distance, is something our sport has been missing to make competitions more dynamic and attractive for spectators.”
These multi-national sprint formats have been tried before, notably on London’s Serpentine Lake in the late 1980’s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJByHvGvUls But the Shanghai event is altogether more ambitious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teRKPEL_L7A Could it change our sport for the better? Watch this space.
Team USA in full: Cedar Cunningham, Christopher Carlson, Jacob Plihal, Samuel Melvin, Samuel Sullivan, Teal Cohen, Isabela Darvin, Grace Joyce, Kaitlin Knifton, Sophia Vitas, Coxswain TBD.
