The next round of racing for Olympic quota places begins this week at the Americas Qualification Regatta in Rio de Janeiro, and amongst the countries hoping for places in Paris will be a group of nations actively supported by World Rowing's Development Program.
The continental qualification system creates a path for solidarity, increasing the number of nations at the Games by providing more universal access to quota places. World Rowing uses the Development Program to support emerging nations in each continental region, making sure they are on that path.
At the African qualifier last October, five of the nine nations to earn places currently rely on the Development Program, and in Rio, countries like Barbados, El Salvador, Paraguay, and Uruguay--all of which raced at the Belgrade Worlds with World Rowing's support--will look to book Olympic places of their own.
The Development Program fosters the growth of rowing in those nations and others through coaching education, technical assistance, some equipment support, and by running training camps throughout the year, both within each continent and at the championship venues themselves in the run up to Worlds.
While the intent is to develop infrastructure in each nation to support rowing in general, these efforts ultimately seek to foster teams robust enough to earn qualification and increase the universality of rowing as a sport at the Games.
According to Daniela Gomes, who oversees the program as Head of Development and Sustainability for WorldRowing, the program works to support many facets of rowing in the partner nations, but "the most important is the pathway to the Olympics and Paralympics."
"This means helping with all the Olympic and Paralympic qualification, helping nations to attend, helping with coaching support, [and] helping with scholarships with athletes that are proposed by their National Olympic Commmittees, in terms of managing their scholarships or providing technical support."
In addition to the Americas Qualifier, which begins on Thursday, nations on this development pathway will also feature in the Asia/Oceania Qualifier (4/19-4/21), the European Qualifier (4/25-4/28), and the Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualifier (FOPQR) in Lucerne (5/19-21).
The Development Program takes its lead from the Olympic Charter, which guides World Rowing as a governing body of an Olympic sport. The principle of access to sport as a universal human right is one of the fundamental pillars of the Charter and a key tenet of Olympism, the philosophy behind the Olympic movement. It also informs the IOC's Olympic Solidarity initiative, which looks to support National Olympic Committees (NOCs) around the world, especially those in nations with the greatest need.
"Within the Olympic Charter, International Federations need to ensure the development of their sport," explained Gomes. "One of the main things within what we do is to provide the technical assistance and the practical implementation of Olympic Solidarity program."
The efforts of the Development Program also encompass getting more youth involved in the sport, improving the gender balance, creating more inclusion, and increasing the number and breadth of nations winning medals, but universality is the key to the sustainability of the sport.
"Throughout the last 10 years, we have been guided by some metrics that are important for Olympic sports to continue to be Olympic sports," said Gomes. "[In] Development, we have been trying to support this strategy, in terms of having more nations, more active nations, [and] more nations that try Olympic qualification."
In Tokyo, 80 different nations competed at the Games and, while the IOC's lower 2024 quota for rowing as a whole may nudge that number down for Paris, the Development Program's goal remains the same: to have as many nations as possible representing the sport at the Olympics.
Gomes conceded that the change in the quota numbers might mean fewer nations qualifying for Paris. In fact, a portion of the quota places Rowing surrendered came from the Asia and Americas qualifiers, where just two light doubles can now qualify per gender, down from three for Tokyo.
[Ed note: The men's and women's quads and fours also lost one quota place from Worlds. Those events will feature just nine crews in Paris, down from 10, but those boat classes are not offered at the continental qualifiers.]
"We will not have as many countries qualify for for Paris, but the idea is that we get people involved in trying to prepare adequately to participate in different levels of competition, even if they don't make it to the Olympics," Gomes said, acknowledging that the development pathway is a long game that plays out over multiple Olympic cycles.
In that regard, an equally important number will be how many nations seek to qualify this quadrennial. For Tokyo, 106 nations made the attempt according to Gomes, and there have already been 80 in the mix for 2024 between Worlds and the African qualifier last year, with three more continental qualifiers and the FOPQR remaining.
While the Development Program might be most visible to the wider rowing community at the Olympics and the World Championships--in Belgrade 24 of the 74 delegations attended with its support--it involves year round efforts through the Quadrennial.
"What we do throughout the year from January to December is to help with continental development," said Gomes. "Most of our work is done in the continents, with coaches and managers that help develop the sport at the national, regional and continental level.
"We have people in all the continents," said Gomes, who directs a team of administrative staff at World Rowing with a Development Manager assigned to each a continent. "We work closely with continental representatives to understand the strategy for the region and how we can optimize the actions.
"We also try to look at the continents and check what type of integration is being done. We work with federations to check if there is a continent where there is no Para activity or no Coastal activity. Then we try to work with them and within the regional dynamics to try to create the competition and training opportunities.
"We try to do it on a regional or continental basis because we that way will not be helping one nation, but we will be helping a group of nations."
A great deal of that help is educational: even the financial side of their work largely involves teaching the governing bodies (NGBs) how to engage with their National Olympic Committees and governments for funds. On the technical side, coaches who work with World Rowing as consultants guide the rowing development, led by Gianni Postiglione as Head of Coaching along with Rosie Mayglothling for Classic, Simon Goodey for Para and Guin Batten for Coastal.
In addition to in-person advising at continental camps each year, World Rowing's online Education Academy serves as a platform for this material and a resource to nations in the program.
"We build the scheme of work and syllabus for education with all the coaches and all the disciplines and we try to work for universality," said Gomes.
The development group works in other areas to support rowing as well, noted Gomes.
"Over the past few years, we have all been affected by several things, including pandemic and war, and our department also handles the solidarity aspect of the worldwide donation campaign for Ukraine and before that, when there was an explosion in Lebanon, we also worked to try to help."
Currently, due to the war in Sudan, one of the Sudanese athletes trains in Tunisia with World Rowing's help, as do athletes from Togo and Libya, who would not, according to Gomes, "have the same conditions back home." Ukraine's Para athletes rely on the Development program's assistance as well, to overcome the challenges posed by the ongoing war in their country.
Sudan, Togo, Libya and the Ukrainian Para athletes were among the 24 delagations in Belgrade supported by the Development Program, and the group as a whole included both nations returning to Worlds with athletes who competed in Racice and others which had not attended Worlds in several years.
The ability to host and support those nations at Worlds is built into the bidding process, as a "solidarity mechanism" said Gomes.
"We work in cooperation with the organizing committees so people coming here with us have access to accommodation, meals, and equipment."
That support can include a pre-competition camp at the venue for the athletes, access to resources and equipment during the event and, in Racice, it even included on-venue housing next to the boathouse.
The recent successes of nations currently in the development program include the Moldovan men's double, which made the World Championship A Final in 2022 and just missed direct Olympic qualification in Belgrade, as well as Uruguayan sculler Cloe Callorda's bronze medal at this year's U19 World Championships. Uruguay was among the nations that took advantage of the Development Program's pre-camp ahead of the U19 Worlds at Vaires-sur-Marne last summer.
In addition, four of the African nations earning continental qualification for Paris last October did so with with athletes who raced in Belgrade with World Rowing's support: Egypt, Togo, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe.
Since many more nations are on the development pathway than the number that reach Worlds in a given year or figure in qualification in the current quadrennial, Gomes shared some insights about the process that determines which nations have reached the point where they start sending crews to Worlds.
"We have a system where we have a test performance analysis. We have developed the website and a scheme of work that will provide [each nation] with guidance. The coaches upload some tests that are analyzed by our by our continental experts and worldwide experts, in this case Gianni Postiglione. We would look at it with an objective basis and then complement [that] with a subjective basis in terms of trying to understand if it makes sense in this moment for the country to attend. [For instance] they could be on the borderline, but they haven't been active for maybe three or four years, so they need the boost. It will be a mix, mostly objective and then a bit of understanding the context.
"Obviously there are nations that have [reached] the level to be here [at Worlds] but there are nations that are still on the development pathway that still need to grow a bit more and we need to make sure that they have an opportunity to be educated, trained and compete at a different level."
Looking at the group of countries which the Development Program supported in Belgrade, Gomes highlighted three nations--Angola, Tunisia, and Moldova--at different stages of the pathway, illustrating how the process works over time.
Angola, which had not been to Worlds since 2015, is at one end of the pathway with its current group and sent younger athletes to Belgrade to gain experience.
"Angola brought two athletes," said Gomes, "and we know that the lessons that they will have from here are very important, so that they all can also continue training back home. They are preparing for the Africa qualifier so that was also important piece of information to get them the motivation to continue. What they have gained here in one week will be important for the future and it will be important for us to sustain the rowing in Angola."
These opportunities create what Gomes called a "legacy" for further development. While the athletes Angola brought to Belgrade for their first Worlds--like Emerson Costino in the Men's Single--did not earn any quota places for this Olympics themselves, racing at Worlds likely helped at the African Qualifier. Costino made the A Final in the U23 single there.
In addition, Angola will be one of the pathway nations in Paris, earning a quota place at the African Qualifier in the M1x with a senior athlete who did not race in Belgrade: returning 2016 Olympian Andre Matias.
Tunisia's athletes in Belgrade included two Olympians who successfully navigated the development and qualification pathway for Rio and Tokyo, and both of the crews that raced in Belgrade--the LW2x and Mohamed Taieb in the M1x--went on to earn Paris places at the African Qualifier.
The Tunisian program, which has seen a lot of success in coastal rowing as well, has even become what Gomes called "a hub to help others in Africa" thanks to Tunisian coaches who came through the Development Program who have gone on to become educators themselves.
"They sustain participation and they have a high level for the continent" said Gomes about Tunisia. "They have a good national system."
Moldova's athletes in Belgrade, racing the men's double again after the success at the 2022 Worlds, have reached a place where they are competing with the more traditional rowing nations for direct qualification.
"Moldova is another example where we are working to get this group of athletes and coach to a level where they could go to an Olympics," said Gomes.
In the end, the Moldovan double made the B final--ahead of the US, Poland, and Australia to name a few more established nations which did not--but came twelfth, just missing out of the top 11 finish they needed to qualify.
Since the M2x is not offered at the continental qualifiers, Moldova will now look to the Final Olympic Qualifier, racing against nations that will include the US this year for one of the final two spots.
"They could be fighting with the biggest nations in the world for a position to go to the Olympics," Gomes said. "But the reality is that to go to the Olympics and to train a crew to go to the Olympics, the investment is huge and this investment is only accessible to a few countries."
Helping NGBs find ways to support that kind of investment is where the Development Program's work on creating connections with the governments and national Olympic committees helps secure funding.
"Moldova by themselves will not be able to have sufficient funding to have a crew go to the Olympics because this would require a series of training camps throughout the year outside of Moldova, because of weather, with all the budget that comes with it: transporting boats and the accommodation and food and support to the athletes. This is not possible in a country like Moldova so we have to get together with the federation, the government, and the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and build a program where we try to help them to get funding."
Each nation in the program is the product of a team effort: "We work together with nations to try to bring projects to life," said Gomes, explaining how the financial support works.
"Many athletes will have scholarships. Some coaches will also have scholarships. This doesn't depend on World Rowing. It depends on the NOC is being able to support them so it's important that the countries have a good network within their own country with government and National Olympic Committee. Because we are an Olympic sport, part of the revenue of Games is owned by the NOC and the NOC's have different world programs they can use and we assist the nations on how to apply for those and in some cases we manage the program from A to Z.
"We try to bridge the gap," said Gomes. "We will never be able to fully bridge it but we try to fill in some parts of the gap.
"We also do some equipment assistance, although not 100%. For example, we work with the nations that have already some means to purchase equipment. We try to help them a bit to offset [costs]. We can only do this to a reduced number of nations per year, if they are ready. We are currently doing donations, for example, to Benin and to Nigeria. In Nigeria, we currently have six boats overall and, in Benin, maybe they would have nine or 10, so it's really needed. And they still don't have coastal boats, so we would also do that."
World Rowing predicates that assistance on being able to build a complete infrastructure. "We help them if there is a broader development project, so it's not just equipment," said Gomes. "It's equipment and then we provide coaching education, and also up-skill their technical officials with the help of the umpiring commission, so they can perfect their system. We would work with them so that they can also have a national championships and a national calendar every year so that they can select people."
For Gomes, success across the quadrennial can be defined by many metrics, chief among them the safe conduct of all the rowing in each of the nations she works with. Then, continued technical development in terms of the rowers and the support systems is vital so that, ultimately, more nations can reach the point where they can progress to the Games and help contribute to universality of the sport.
"After [Worlds], we'll have a report to all the nations in terms of where we feel they can continue to improve on the technical side and on the organizational side.
"We'll have a meeting with them to say look, it has been great or maybe for next year, there are a couple of things that you could work on," said Gomes. "These are suggestions, because the member federation's are autonomous to measure [their] success in the quadrennial."
Looking Ahead
In the next six weeks, the full number of rowing nations booking places for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics will come into focus, as World Rowing holds the three remaining continental regattas and the the FOPQR in Lucerne.
At each continental qualifier, athletes from nations yet to qualify or with only one quota place so far get the opportunity to race for places in the singles and light doubles, along with places in the Para PR1 singles and PR3 Mix Doubles. Then, of course, they can also race at the FOPQR, which is open to every boat still looking for a place in Paris and which will include Para athletes this year for the first time.
A full rundown of the process, the number of places available in each continent, and the nations qualified so far, can be found here at WorldRowing.com.
After the last quota places have been determined, that final number of nations in Paris will become an important indicator of the universality of the sport, and its global accessibility. Those factors determine the viability of rowing as a worldwide sport, and will continue to drive World Rowing's solidarity efforts with the Development Program.
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