Reaching the limit – can more indoor rowing world records be broken?

It took years to break the four-minute mile, but once it was accomplished in 1954, the flood gates burst open and now more than 1400 male runners have followed suit. In rowing the breaking of records, both on-water and off-water have progressed with a slow but steady march.

This week indoor rowers from around the world are contesting the 2021 World Rowing Indoor Championships. Already many new World Records have been set.

The breaking of the four-minute mile led to many questions regarding the human capacity for record-breaking¹. Is it psychological? Does it rest on physiological and technical developments? Is there a true limit? Recent studies have suggested that the pace of record-breaking across all sports has slowed since the 1980s, which perhaps indicates that humans are reaching maximum physiological potential².

In many rowing events there have been long periods without new records which suggests that rowing may be heading towards a line of physiological limitation. But there are other areas – masters indoor rowing for example – where improvement still seems very doable.

On the men’s side, the man indoor rowing distance of 2000m has a world record that stood for ten years (set by Rob Waddell of New Zealand) before Joshua Dunkley-Smith of Australia broke it in 2018 by 1.7 seconds (read more here). Dunkley-Smith’s achievement was made more extraordinary by the fact that only a handful of rowers have broken the 5:40-mark. Dunkley-Smith himself said that breaking 5:30 on the indoor rowing machine is probably impossible.

The women’s indoor record for 2000m has been more pliable in recent years. Olena Buryak of Ukraine has beaten her own record several times, setting it where it currently sits at 6:22.8 back in 2018 (watch here).  But few other female athletes have broken 6:30.

On the water, the story becomes more complicated. No female single sculler has come close to the record set by Rumyana Neykova (BUL) in 2002. Were the water conditions just right to make an almost unbeatable time? It is, of course, why the on-water records are named ‘best times’. It is not possible to set world records when so many factors such as wind and water temperature play role.

Comparing on-water and off-water times also opens an interesting avenue. While the men’s single sculls best time is 6:30.74, set by Robert Manson of New Zealand in 2017. This is almost 55 seconds slower than the indoor rowing record, or a 15 per cent difference.

For the women, the difference between on-water and off-water is 45 seconds, or only 11 per cent. These differences hold up when looking at the lightweight categories.

Lightweight rowers are generally more efficient on the water and women are generally more efficient on the water as compared with men. The difference between the lightweight women’s single sculls time and the indoor rowing machine time is only about 7 per cent.

The story changes again with para rowers. Of course, it is early days with the distance shifting from 1000m to 2000m for para rowing in 2017. In this time Birgit Skarstein of Norway has been busy setting records both on and off the water. Skarstein just set a new indoor world record for the PR1 women’s 2000m at 8:18.5. On the water she also holds the best time 10:13.63, a difference of 20.7 per cent.

The indoor rowing PR1 men saw a new world record in 2020 from Benjamin Pritchard (GBR), who finished in a time of 7:32.0. This compares to Roman Polianskyi’s PR1 men’s single sculls on-water best time of 9:12.99, a difference of 20 per cent. It remains to be seen how the para rowing records and best times will develop as athletes break the physiological boundaries of the 2000m race.

As athletes around the world seem to head towards the physiological threshold, how many more records can be broken at the 2021 World Rowing Indoor Championships?

Be sure to watch the final day of racing on Saturday, 27 February with live streaming on the World Rowing website.

References:

1. https://hbr.org/2018/03/what-breaking-the-4-minute-mile-taught-us-about-the-limits-of-conventional-thinking
2. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-we-reaching-the-end-of-world-records/

See all on-water best times: https://worldrowing.com/athletes/best-times/

See all indoor rowing records: https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/racing/records/world