World Rowing convenes its Quadrennial Congress this week in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Friday and Saturday. The meeting is World Rowing's once-every-four-year opportunity to vote on changes to its Statutes and the Rules of Racing.

Four of the changes proposed this year affect the events that will be offered at the World Championships:

• eliminating the lightweight pair and quad events at both the Senior and U23 levels, leaving the single and double as the only lightweight boat classes going forward (the U19 level does not offer any lightweight categories)

• eliminating the coxed four from the U19 and U23 World Championships

• eliminating the non-Paralympic Para events (the PR2 1x and PR3 2-) at the Senior World Championships

• adding two Para events to the U23 World Championships, a men's and women's PR3 single

The proposed rules, if adopted, will also give the Council the ability to add a mixed event to the program at the Senior, U23, and U19 Worlds during the next four years, but does not specify a boat class. Included in the proposals is the creation a new rule, Rule 14, which will define mixed events. This chart outlines the changes to the events offered at each level of championship.

Two other significant proposals would change the progression structure to eliminate repechages and revise the rules on gender eligibility to define two categories, Women and Men/Open, along the lines of the policy adopted by British Rowing in 2023.

In place of the repechage format, the proposed rule would advance the top two places from each heat and fill the remaining places in the next round with the crews with the next fastest times from the heats. An overview of the proposed progression system, which is based on a study of the last ten years of World Championships results, can be found here.

The proposal on gender would change the title of Rule 13 from "Men’s and Women’s Events" to "Gender Eligibility" and establish two gender categories, one for Women and one for Men. The Women's category would be for athletes "assigned and recognized as female at the time of the rower's birth" or "declared as eligible to compete as a woman pursuant to this Rule and its Bye-Law," according to the proposed text. In the new rule, Men's events would also serve as an Open category, "for rowers who are not eligible to compete in a women’s event."

The full text of the changes proposed to the Bye-Law for Rule 13 on gender can be found here, and the text of the proposal itself can be found in the Agenda document posted online.

All of the documents for the 2025 Quadrennial Congress can be viewed here on the World Rowing website, along with a summary presentation about the proposals mentioned above and the other major changes to the Rules of Racing.