2021 World Rowing Ordinary Congress re-elects President Jean-Christophe Rolland

The 2021 World Rowing Ordinary Congress was held virtually Saturday, 6 November 2021. Delegates from 62 member federations registered to attend virtually with 33 percent of the delegates female in a step forward towards gender equality in governance. Voting was facilitated by the well-known electronic voting service provider Lumi.

Jean-Christophe Rolland of France was re-elected for a third term as President. Tricia Smith of Canada was re-elected as Vice President also for a third term and Gerritjan Eggenkamp of the Netherlands was re-elected to a full term as Treasurer. These are four-year terms ending on 31 December 2025.

There were also elections for the three Council member positions on the Executive Committee. The current office holders – Patrick Rombaut of Belgium, Chair of the Umpiring Commission, Rosie Mayglothling of Great Britain, Chair of the Competitive Rowing Commission and Eva Szanto of Hungary, Chair of the Events Commission – were all re-elected to their positions. These are four-year terms ending 31 December 2025, or until their terms as Chairs of their Commissions expire or end. These six join the Chair of the Athletes Commission Frida Svensson of Sweden and the Executive Director (non-voting) on the Executive Committee.

Three elections were held for Chairs of the “new” Commissions. First, for the Coastal Rowing Commission, the delegates elected Guin Batten of Great Britain as Chair. The next is the Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Cross-Commission and the delegates elected Jacomine Ravensbergen of the Netherlands as Chair. Finally, the new Chair of the Indoor Rowing Commission will be Filip Ljubicic of Serbia. These are for two-year terms ending on 31 December 2023, the next statutory election year for these positions.

World Rowing announced the launch of the 2022 Strategic Event Attribution Process (SEAP) with attribution scheduled to take place at the 2022 Ordinary Congress on 26 September 2022 in the Czech Republic. The SEAP was developed to recognise the significant investment by government authorities in facilities for the sport of rowing and offers them a chance to take a more strategic approach to staging international events. The events open for bid are listed below.

It was also announced that the 2021 World Rowing Awards Ceremony will be held virtually at noon CET on 29 January 2022 and the 2021 World Rowing Coaches Conference will take place from 29 January to 1 February 2022, starting at 13:00 hrs on 29 January 2022. More information will follow in the Circular.

It was also the last Congress of long serving Council members Ryszard Stadniuk of Poland who served as Continental Representative for Europe and Lee Spear of New Zealand who served as Continental Representative for Oceania. President Rolland thanked them for their dedicated service. The new World Rowing Executive Director Vincent Gaillard was present and it was announced that he will start on 1 January 2022 replacing long-serving Executive Director Matt Smith who will be stepping down at the end of the year. The President paid tribute to Smith and played a number of videos acknowledging his enormous dedication and commitment to rowing and his many outstanding achievements during his 26 years in the position.

In other items, it was announced that the World Rowing Council has voted to support the proposal of Los Angeles 2028 to move the rowing venue for 2028 to the Long Beach Marine Stadium, venue of the 1932 Olympic Games.   LA28 can now continue to work with the City of Long Beach on next steps.

For any questions, please contact Communications Manager Brian Orsini on brian.orsini@worldrowing.com

2022 World Rowing Strategic Event Attribution Process (SEAP)

• World Rowing Championships – 2025 and 2026
• World Rowing Cup 1 – 2024
• World Rowing Cups 1, 2 and 3 – 2025 and 2026
• World Rowing Under 19 Championships – 2025 and 2026
• World Rowing Under 23 Championships – 2025 and 2026
• World Rowing Beach Sprint Championships* – 2024 and 2025
• World Rowing Coastal Championships* – 2024 and 2025
• World Rowing Indoor Championships – 2025

* Combined Bids Possible