Americas Olympic and Paralympic Continental Qualification Regatta is confirmed

Following extensive discussions with all key stakeholders, the World Rowing Executive Committee has verified that the preparations of the Organising Committee (OC) of the Americas Olympic and Paralympic Continental Qualification Regatta conform with the World Rowing requirements for 2021 regattas, and has therefore confirmed that the regatta will take place from 4 to 6 March 2021 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

As required by World Rowing’s event management guidance (Return to Regattas found here) which was successfully tested during 2020, the OC has developed a covid-19 protection plan for staging the event based on the recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO), World Rowing and relevant local public health and medical authorities. World Rowing and the OC are confident that the measures planned to be in place are appropriate to minimise the risk of transmission and infection at the event. The regatta covid-19 Protection Plan is available online at http://www.remobrasil.com/rio2021.

Each Member Federation is responsible to exercise maximum care for its team members before, during and after the event. Each team will be asked to form a team “bubble”, this means that members of that team must strictly remain in the company of only fellow team members from arrival to departure in Rio (this includes at the venue, in the official transport and all public areas of the official hotel). Members of each team bubble should have no or limited contact with people not in their team bubble. All participants must follow the measures in the OC covid-19 Protection Plan at all times, including the wearing of masks at all times except in the boat or at meals, social distancing and regular disinfection among the other measures published by the OC.

Each participant at the regatta will be required to complete a Pre-Event Health Questionnaire and Member Federations are obliged to sign a consent form accepting responsibility for their team members. The forms will be sent out to Member Federations directly by the Rio OC and must be completed and returned to the OC by email to covid@remobrasil.com. In addition, all participation conditions will be explained to participating athletes and officials in a webinar to be organised before travel to the event and a mandatory briefing will be held with each team on site. To protect the health of all participants, anyone not adhering to the participation conditions will be immediately disqualified and excluded from the event, at the discretion of the World Rowing Executive Committee.

Information for Member Federations sending athletes to compete at the Americas Olympic and Paralympic Continental Qualification Regatta is available at http://www.remobrasil.com/rio2021, including information on accommodation and travel logistics for teams.

World Rowing will hold a Video Conference Call for Member Federations on Tuesday 12 January 2021 at 17:00 hrs CET, as an opportunity for representatives to ask any questions relating to the Americas Olympic and Paralympic Continental Qualification Regatta. Details of the call will be communicated to Member Federations via email.

The latest Olympic and Paralympic Games qualification system documents are available on the relevant event page on the World Rowing website.

Due to the covid-19 pandemic, the decision was made to not hold the regatta on the previously planned dates in April 2020. World Rowing and the Rio OC continue to monitor the covid-19 situation in the Americas continent as well as the global travel situation, and the latest recommendations from the WHO and local health authorities. Any further updates will be communicated to the Member Federations directly.