If you haven’t heard, rowing at the Valencia Gay Games was cancelled. A screen capture from a phone was relayed to the glrfcentral desk in December, answering an inquiry from a participant.  We never were told.  This, in spite of three separate emails sent over the summer of 2025 asking about the event. 

This sudden silence is in sharp contrast to the original Valencia Gay Games bid in which the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation was specifically highlighted as the main liaison body that Valencia would work with for the sport.  When we saw this mention, we submitted an online message on their website but as often happens, those online messaging systems are ignored or don’t work.  We followed up every year at the Sin City Classic in 2023, 2024, and 2025 where the Valencia Gay Games had a desk, asking about our email and providing our business card, and yet no replies.

Although there was some significant enthusiasm among a core group of Valencia rowers, the event never got off the ground due to rising costs to host the event, and a tepid interest from the gay rowing community (as of November 2025, there were only two registrations).  We knew something was amiss in April when rowing registration was not open but all the rest of the sports had opened for registration.  Rowing registration finally opened in late June 2025. 

The competition was slated to use the traditional Falucho/Llaüt  open water fixed seat rowing boat.  This type of racing traces its roots to a competition among fishing boats to be the first to reach port and thus obtain a better price for their catch.  Falucho open water competitive rowing is most common in Spain although it is found in other parts of the Mediterranean.

The boat has a coxie and 8 rowers with one bow seat and one stroke seat and three double seats in the engineroom.

Photo courtesy of La Federación de Remo de la Comunitat Valenciana 

The sports desk at the Valencia Gay Games has encouraged rowers interested in participating to switch to dragon boat racing.  Apparently, no one told them that rowing and paddling are different sport styles and muscles.  Rowers face backwards and mainly push with their legs to power the oars. Paddlers face forwards and mainly pull with their arms, shoulders, and backs. Oops!

I will be reaching out to various queer rowing organisations, but hope you are happy for me to share this news here! The book has been called "a triumph" by Publishers Weekly, while Kirkus Reviews said "This sweet, slow-burn romance will appeal to readers who loved Red, White & Royal Blue, but the dynamic setting and crisp banter in Hammett’s impressive debut are totally his own. A swoony, unputdownable story"

I rowed myself at school including on the Thames and at Henley and still keep it up on the erg, so I hope you find the book accurate enough in its portrayal of rowing!

The Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation is excited to unveil the new Rainbow Logo Challenge application, appropriately on the start of June Pride month and with the launch of the 2025 Rainbow Logo Challenge. The application is the final part of the launch of GLRF Version 2.0. 

The premise of the Rainbow Logo Challenge is for organizations to incorporate rainbow colors in their social media and website logos.  The application displays each entry along with those media sites that feature an organization’s rainbow-colored logos. 

Both GLRF members and guests can now directly submit entries for the Rainbow Logo Challenge, which facilitates the uploading of rainbow logos directly from clubs, programmes, organizations, and businesses.  This means the logos are the actual image instead of some version of right click and save.

As an international organization, the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation recognizes that some countries celebrate Pride month during months other than June: Deutschland, Danmark, Nederland, to name a few.  For that reason, we included a month selection feature for each challenge entry, and we also featured a field to allow for the local spelling of the month name.  We feel this allows for increased inclusivity, and a recognition that each of our rowing communities and global Pride month celebrations are unique.

The application now displays all challenge entries by year and presents a compelling list of clubs, organizations, and businesses that actively support the LGBTQ rowing community.

With the introduction of the optional month selection, the Rainbow Logo Challenge now becomes a year-long engagement, providing more sustained visibility and support for the LGBTQ+ community within the rowing world.  It acknowledges the diversity of Pride month celebrations globally.

We believe this new application is a positive change that can expand the reach and impact of the Rainbow Logo Challenge initiative

The Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation hosted its fourth indoor rowing event, the Sin City Erg, on Sunday, 19 January 2025, in Las Vegas, United States.  The event is part of the multi-sport festival known as the Sin City Classic.  The event draws over 8,000 participants who compete in 24 (at last count) sport and club tourneys, and is the largest annual LGBTQ+ sporting event in the world.

Framed as the Global LGBTQ+ Indoor Rowing Event, the 2025 Sin City Erg was held in the gymnasium of the Cambridge Recreation Center.  Twenty-one ergs were laid out in a two-row semicircle that faced a large projection screen.  A total of 61 events were offered in 1X, 2X, 4X, 8X, PR1, PR2, and PR3, for men, women, and non-binary genders.  The team events use a feature of the Concept2 race software that allows multiple participants to race as one boat. 

A total of 20 participants competed across 37 entries in 8 events:

·         Over 44 men

·         Over 44 women

·         Under 45 men

·         Under 45 women

·         Open Women

·         Open Men

·         Team 2X Under 45 men

·         Team 2X Under 45 women

Participants hailed from Washington, Maryland, Florida, California, and Nevada.

Medals were awarded for 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd places. 

The 2025 Sin City Erg marked the first active use of the Regattas+ listing feature on the GLRF website.  Take a look. GLRF members added themselves to Members Going.  Images were uploaded to albums. Results were added to Files. Comments were posted. The Seat Search feature was used for a Team 4X event.

The Regattas+ feature is available to any GLRF member to add a regatta, ergatta, or camp/clinic that would be of interest to the LGBTQ rowing community and/or that a GLRF member will be attending and hopes to meet up with others.

Do you have news that would be of interest to our community? Any GLRF member can add a news article. As long as the news article is rowing-related, it will be approved!

Seat Search as a concept began at the 1998 Gay Games when the WHOars needed a coxie for their 8+ and 4+.  With the launch of Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation website in 2003, we offered a Seat Search feature for featured regattas.  The idea of using a database was not really feasible for the website tools we were using at the time so the capabilities were limited.

Fast forward to December 2024 and now Rower Seat Search and Club Seat Search is a default feature in any Regattas+ listing.  For example, if a GLRF member added the Head of the Yarra in Melbourne as a Regattas+ listing, a rower could submit a seat search to race in a boat, and a rowing club or program could list a Club Seat Search for an opening in their boat maybe for a cox or for 6-seat.

What’s the difference between a Rower Seat Search and a Club Seat Search? For a rower whose club is not going to a regatta or who wants to race in more than just one entry, the Rower Seat Search helps a rower announce that they are looking for an open seat in a race.  For a club or program that perhaps wants to enter two races but only has rowers for one boat and is short one or more for a second race, the Club Seat Search helps a to fill a boat.

Each Seat Search entry leverages the GLRF member profile to display key rower and coxie profile of data that is important for filling a boat.  The Seat Search feature provides for three categories: sweep, scull, and cox.  Seat Searches can be made for each category, “rower looking for …” and “club seeking a …” 

If this was available in 1998, the WHOars would have submitted a Club Seat Search for a coxie.

Regattas+ is part of the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation community platform that enables members to add their own regattas, ergattas, and rowing camps/clinics.  Every Regattas+ listing creates community for LGBTQ rowers by providing a RSVP-like members going feature, comments feature, upload files, and share images. 

Whether it is the Head of the Mississippi regatta or the Covered Bridge regatta or a Eurogames regatta, GLRF is helping to create community among LGBTQ+ rowers.

Of course, allies can join GLRF and add a Regattas+ listing.  GLRF doesn’t ask anyone’s sexual orientation.

Registration is open for the 2025 Sin City Erg.  Positioned as the global LGBTQ+ indoor rowing event, the competition will take place on Sunday, 19 January 2025 in Las Vegas. 

The Sin City Erg will be one of 27 sports that are part of the 2025 Sin City Classic multi-sport tournament. The event is held every year over the United States Martin Luther King holiday weekend.  Over 8,000 athletes are expected to attend, with some sports attracting hundreds if not thousands of participants.  The largest sport participation totals from 2024:

• Softball: 2,579
• Kickball: 1,482
• Women’s Softball: 814
• Dodgeball: 761
• Volleyball: 492
• Soccer: 345
• Flag Football: 302
• Pickleball: 194
• Tennis: 183
• Sand Volleyball: 159
• Cheerleading: 159

The Sin City Erg has been held three times since 2020.  The big draw for indoor rowers is the selection of both individual and team events.  Using the Concept2 Race software, teams can be created from the athletes sitting on the ergs, creating double, quadruple, and octuple races.  The display shows the associated team boats racing down the course.  Perfect for teams, clubs, and programmes to compete against each other.  With 24 ergs, the opportunities to compete in a 2X, 4X, and 8X team event are endless!

If you only look at the Regatta Central counts for the 2024 Sin City Erg, you will be misled.  There were 16 participants in 27 entries for 11 events.  We had several walk-up registrations.

Bring your friends, partners, husbands, and wives.  There are sports in which they can participate as well as all the fun of Vegas!

Early registration closes on 15 November and regular registration opens on 16 November.  There are unlimited entries for one participant fee.  

The Sin City Erg is presented by the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation (GLRF).  Login to the GLRF website and follow the event and indicate if you are going!

After years of promises and significant personal and developer delays, the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation’s new online community platform is now live.  The platform was officially opened for new registrations on 21 October 2024.  What’s so different?  Just about everything!

Probably the most important change is that V2.0 is responsive.  What does that mean?  For all you mobile users, you can browse and interact with the community with any mobile device, phone, or tablet, all day and all night.  Just type in the GLRF url, glrf.info, into any browser on your mobile and you will see and use just about every feature available that you would find on a desktop or laptop. 

Brand new to the V2.0 is  Regattas+  The section allows any GLRF member to list any rowing-related regatta, ergatta, and camp/clinic.  When we say any, we mean any: LGBTQ+-focused or not.  If you have a favorite rowing regatta, you can list it, and once listed, GLRF members can follow the listing to see who is going, track comments, see any uploaded files, and share images.  Every listing is designed to have an overview description (provided by a GLRF member) as well as links for the regatta website and registration.  Even better, any GLRF member can edit the listing if the description or dates or url is incorrect.  Best of all, there is a Member Going feature.  Yes, you can click “I’m Going” and the rest of the community can see that!

Probably the most visited aspect of the community is the Gallery.  Not only renamed, but completely redesigned, the Gallery removes endless layers of categories and subcategories and simply offers albums.  GLRF members can create their own albums or add to existing with absolute ease.  Since the gallery is an intrinsic part of the platform, GLRF members can find the gallery albums connected with the Community Calendar Events section and the Regattas+ section.

Another major remodel was the Countries section.  Now found under Connections, the Members, section allows visitors to click on every country with a GLRF member and see member demographics by region and metroarea.  We have added a country moderator feature that allows one or more country-specific GLRF members to send emails to all or portions of a given country. 

The Initiatives section is brand new and supports the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation’s goals to promote inclusion and acceptance, and to promote rowing in the broader LGBTQ+ community.

We encourage everyone to reconnect with our global rowing community.  Log in and update your profile, or if you have heard about our community but kept putting it off, take the plunge and register – it’s free!

Oh, we almost forgot!  Yes, there is an app!  It’s a PWA or progressive web app.  It looks and acts like a native application from the Google Store or the Apple Store but just works on any browser in a phone or tablet without all the updating and downloading.  Need some help? Click over to our FAQ's.

The Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation marked 20 years of hosting a booth at the Head of the Charles Regatta and Festival on 18 – 20 Oct 2024.  Situated along non-profit row, the booth is 100 meters before the finish line and affords some great viewing as crews battle to the finish. 

The booth is located along a footpath fronting the Charles River.  The booth location creates a bottleneck among the foot traffic flow that creates incredible visibility for approaching crews, coaches, visitors, and parents.  Flowing from the finish line towards the main expo of the festival, everyone has to pass in front of the booth before they can peel off in one of several directions.   

There were displays for the Rower’s Pledge, the GLRF global initiative to promote inclusion and acceptance in the broader rowing community, and for the 2025 Sin City Erg, in January 2025 in Las Vegas.  Booth visitors enjoyed inspecting the various GLRF t-shirts, hoodies, and headwear. 

In all the years of hosting a booth, this weekend seemed to be the best with only a touch of wind on Friday and sunny skies every day.  Yes, it was jacket chilly in the morning but by Noon, all of us began shedding layers.  At the booth we had GLRF members @DPH2002, @Bob715, and @Howie55.

Throughout the weekend, GLRF members stopped by to say hello. It was great catching up with @omac, @DESIGNINGJIM35, @rowrgrl, @OneChocolateRower, @chgorower, @jalfano, @philly_cox, @rasta,and several coaches and coxies whose userids we can’t recall.  It was great catching up with allies John and Charlotte from Calm Waters Rowing, Chris from Rowing News, and Bobbie from the Crew Classic.   

Do you have images you would like to share from the Head of the Charles?  Create a new album or add to this one!

In 2023, there will be 27 sports at the Classic. Each sport is organized and hosted by its own sporting body, be it a local sports team or a national sports organization. The sports are held in various places all over Las Vegas while the ‘festival’ if you want to call it that, is headquarterd at a block of three hotels on the Las Vegas Strip: Flamingo, LINQ, and Ballys (soon to be Horsehoe).

The Sin City Classic started as a softball tournament but now has grown to an umbrella event that hosts parties for the participants, offers charity events, and serves to bring all the sports together for the weekend.

The Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation (GLRF) was aware of the Sin City Classic but never really understood the scope of the multi-sport LGBTQ+ tournament. In early January 2019, after reading a press release about a new addition to the Sin City Classic sports lineup, e-gaming, we had one of those revelatory moments that this would be a perfect spot for an LGBTQ+ erg event. After attending the 2019 Sin City Classic and experiencing the parties and watching some of the sports, we knew this would be the ultimate and perfect setting for an LGBTQ+ erg event.

• A central destination that is easy to reach for domestic and international air traffic.
• An extremely lgbtq-friendly city.
• An event that is held at the same time at the same location every year.
• More than just an erg competition – a gathering of 8,000 sports-minded folk that offers something for everyone, including the husbands, wives, and friends that come along.
• The perfect setting for a potential annual meeting of the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation

The Sin City Erg offers a competitive selection of individual and team events and the idea of including team events was specifically targeted for inclusive rowing clubs and rowing studios as well as LGBTQ+ rowing clubs so that teams could compete together against other clubs. These team events are accomplished by using an existing feature in the Concept2 indoor race software.

Beyond the Sin City Erg, the Sin City Classic offers a weekend getaway that provides not only lots of parties but also the chance to see shows, dine at amazing restaurants, explore the nearby parks, hike in the nearby mountains, visit museums, and of course, shopping. Las Vegas is actually a very family friendly location and GLRF is very proud that the Sin City Erg is open to age 13+.

What is the tempo?

• 12 January 2023: Thursday is the Early Bird Party
• 13 January 2023: Friday has some sports already underway.
• 13 January 2023: Friday night is the Registration Party where all the sports host a table in a ginormous ballroom at the Flamingo Hotel and where many of the athletes come to pick up their registration envelopes provided by the individual sports. There are floor games, bars, and some delicious eye candy since the adult industry hosts some booths as well.
• 14 January 2023: Saturday is busy all over Las Vegas as the sports tournaments gets underway. The Sin City Erg setup starts at the Chuck Minker Sports Complex.
• 14 January 2023: Saturday night has another big party.
• 15 January 2023: Sunday more sports tournaments continue. The Sin City Erg event gets underway.
• 15 January 2023: Sunday night is the closing party.
• 13 - 15 January 2023: Alongside the Sin City Classic, the Hustlaball Las Vegas is also running at the same time.

Truly the Sin City Erg is perfectly positioned as the Global LGBTQ+ Indoor Rowing event. Registration is open at Regatta Central.

What are these fears?

• Rejection by your teammates
  
• Discrimination by your school, club, or coach
  
• Retribution towards your place on the roster, to your gear, your house, your boat
  
• Isolation from your ‘friends’
  
• Judgement of you as a person because you are publicly part of the LGBTQ community
  
• Abandonment by your family
  
• Despisement of your orientation
  
• Resentment towards a perceived desire for special treatment
  

Before LGBTQ acceptance in society became so commonplace, the LGBTQ community kept to themselves, seeking safety in the self-affirming gatherings spots of LGBTQ neighborhoods, clubs, and bars. When you looked a stranger or coworker in the eye, you didn’t know what they were thinking or how they might judge you if you shared your sexual orientation or it was discovered.

All of these issues are still a part of the LGBTQ rowing community. The shooting at the Club Q in Colorado Springs at midnight on November 19^th reaches inside the soul of every LGBTQ person in the United States and draws out these fears.

Certainly, one or many could say this was the work and action of a lone, crazed person. This is not how you, your club, and your boat feel but the threat is still very real. This shooting puts us all on edge, forcing us to look around at strangers and teammates, wondering what they are thinking about you and the LGBTQ community.

There has been an outpouring of support on social media towards the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs. Those messages are comforting but don’t have a significant meaning to the rowers in your rowing program or your rowing club.

We call on every rowing club and rowing program at every level in the United States to show your support for your LGBTQ rowers with a meaningful gesture and message of acceptance. Display a rainbow flag, and it doesn’t matter if it has five or 8 colors. It’s the message, and along with it, send out an email to everyone in the club or program that declares the importance of the action: that LGBTQ rowers are welcome and accepted and respected. Just display the flag for three days or whatever time you feel is warranted but make sure the message goes out to the members. It sets an example for your club or program and it sends a profound message. We urge you to do this now, in the next few hours and days, while the hurt, the fear, and the doubt lingers within our minds.

If your club or program feels that displaying a flag falls flat, consider putting on a group row where everyone wears a type of rainbow clothing and when we say everyone, it will have a lot more meaning if the straight members do it than the LGBTQ rowers.

Finally, there could not be a more profound and lasting message of acceptance than if individual members of your rowing club or program sign the Rower’s Pledge. The pledge signatures are counted and displayed in total for a given rowing club or program. That has meaning.

If you haven't done so already, order a free Rower's Pledge sticker to display on your locker, your office door, or in your boathouse.

In the last few years, at the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation regatta booths, visitors have wondered if our organization is still necessary? Do LGBTQ+ rowers really need a sense of community, a way to connect and find other, like-minded folks? Look at how open our society has become. These people say: “It’s not an issue anymore. At the secondary school level and at university, no one raises an eyebrow or passes judgement.”

But it is an issue. There are so many people in the rowing community who are burdened with conformance and acceptance. It isn’t just the teammates, although that is the most biting in a person’s mind. It is the worry about what the coach will think, how he/she/they will treat them in practice, in racing for seats, and how the coach may change their view of a person’s potential performance just based on someone who has “come out.” Then there are the parents. Then there are the teachers, the professors, and the hiring managers.

Do we need to treat this person with kid gloves because they came out? Do we have to watch everything we say? Do they need to be treated with deference? Will this person now be another political activist and everything we do on the team will be about equality and the words we use?

If there is one benefit of the Trump years, it has been the revelation that all these presumptive assumptions that the LGBTQ+ community is widely accepted is not true, and the simmering prejudices are revealed once again. To verify that declaration, we look to the news story in the New York Times, today, 11 October 2022, that relayed an audio recording of three Los Angeles City Council members using caustic racial slurs about other council members and constituents. In CALIFORNIA! In LA! Prejudice remains deeply rooted in our lives.

Every person’s conscience is filled with meeting expectations. Rowing is a small part. From there, the perception and expectation of what someone will become has been communicated by friends, family, and co-workers. It may be easy for Tabatha, Sam and Steven but that doesn’t mean it is easy for others.

Coming Out is not the grand ticker tape parade everyone makes it out to be. What follows after can be the most daunting.

Watch this Tiktok video by Barrett D. Carroll. It really says it all.

The Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation serves to inspirit those in the LGBTQ+ rowing community that we are there, in every aspect of rowing, and that the drive for acceptance and inclusion will continue.

The survey is being run independently by Truclusion and all survey responses will be viewed by them and not USRowing. Truclusion will then provide a summary of the findings to USRowing with suggestions on how USRowing can become more diverse, inclusive, and sustainable.

You don't have to be a member of USRowing to take the survey!

Click this link to take the survey.

The United States is undergoing a marked shift in its political ideology as individual states enact a number of laws affecting both the LGBTQ+ community and the broader population.

Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill, more commonly referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, took effect on 01 July 2022. At least a dozen states proposed similar legislation: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

An 08 July 2022 article in the New York Times examines the explosive rise in book bans across the United States, mostly targeted at LGBTQ+-themed books. The article cites challenges and protests in New Jersey, Arkansas, Illinois, California, Virginia, and North Carolina. At least five states have passed laws that support removing books (that have received complaints) from libraries.

Bans on transgender youth sports participation are codified in eighteen states: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas , Utah, and West Virginia.

These issues point to a geographic landscape that is becoming less and less friendly towards the LGBTQ+ rowers, coaches, and their families who travel to the biggest rowing venues around the East Coast, South, and Mid-West of the United States.

In response, the DC Strokes Rowing Club called for a boycott of the USRowing Masters Nationals Championships at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota County, Florida due to the recently passed “Don’t Say Gay” law. They also implied that USRowing should avoid holding major national regattas, to include championships and trials events, in states with laws unfriendly to LGBTQ+ people to help guarantee their safety and comfort during these events. Boycotting or avoiding holding a regatta in one state, such as Florida, with anti-LGBTQ+ laws would necessitate corollary similar actions for all other states listed above. This would mean that USRowing would not host events in or on: Oakridge, TN; Chattanooga, TN; Harsha Lake, OH; Sarasota, FL; Oklahoma City, OK; and Austin, TX.

A multi-state boycott is a problem for a few reasons. First: USRowing would no longer hold races on the only purpose-built, World Rowing class A course in the country, Nathan Benderson Park. Second: the untenable position would alienate rowers in all those states affected by the boycott. Third, even as a boycott may steer money away from state coffers, it also deprives local LGBTQ+ and LGBTQ+ friendly organizations from revenue they might otherwise receive from the regatta-associated tourism. These businesses are on the front line in local communities, helping to support and promote LGBTQ+ visibility.

A boycott also hands the conservative agenda a victory by removing the presence of LGBTQ+ rowers and supportive rowing community allies at local regattas. It is our view that having a visible presence in a repressive cultural environment challenges people to confront their personal bias and hatred as they interact and discover that the LGBTQ+ rowing community and their allies are their friends, neighbors, and respected, valued members of the larger community.

As an international individual membership organization, the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation (GLRF) currently counts 1,747 members in 43 countries of which 1,012 members are located in the United States. Those members live in 46 states and the District of Columbia. While GLRF respects the right of every member to support the DC Strokes call for a boycott, we as an organization must reflect our broader membership by supporting the rowers where they row. Acceptance and inclusion are the most important issues that LGBTQ+ rowers face at clubs, programs, and at regattas. LGBTQ+ youth in particular needs visible examples of their futures selves at rowing venues across the country.

Brian Todd is the Executive Director of the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation and he rows out of the California Yacht Club.

 

John Olbrys is a member of the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation and he rows out of the Potomac Boat Club and serves as the Club Captain.

ROWING TOURNAMENT

The match will be a board to board race over a distance of 750 metres. One on one races according to a knock-out system; if you win, you progress to the next round, but if you lose, you are out of the tournament. There are two lanes for the match and a uprowing-area. Thursday 28 July 13:00-15:00 Time trials 750m all disciplines 15:30-17:00 Knock-out 1st round 750m all disciplines Friday 29 July 9:00-16:30 Knock-out 750m all disciplines Saturday 30 July 9:00-12:30 Knock-out 750m all disciplines 13:30-15:00 Finals 750m all disciplines 15:00-17:00 Open rowing event

Hereby we would like to invite you, your association and fellow rowing enthusiasts to attend and participate in the EuroGames 2022 Love to Move in Nijmegen from 27 July to 30 July 2022.

The EuroGames are an annual inclusive sports event; the edition in Nijmegen offers 19 different sports and expects around 2,000 participants of all levels, from beginner to advanced, to attend. For more information on this amazing meeting between sport fans, please visit www.eurogames2022.eu. All athletes are welcome! The EuroGames are an outstanding example of an event for the LGBTQI+ community and is thoroughly supported by the European Gay and Lesbian Sports Federation in particular.

RV de Waal, RV De Drie Provinciën and NSRV Phocas will organize a regatta during the EuroGames 2022! This regatta will take place along the Spiegelwaal in Nijmegen on 28, 29 and 30 July 2022. The various races will be held over 750 meters at a beautiful location right next to the historical city centre of Nijmegen. You can find the tournament details, costs and schedule on www.eurogames2022.eu/sports/rowing.

We would be incredibly honoured and pleased to meet you and your fellow rowers in Nijmegen. Furthermore, numerous fun side events will be organised during the sports tournament. Prior to the EuroGames you might want to enjoy the festivities of/or take part in the 104th 4Days Marches, the world’s largest walking achievement event (www.4daagse.nl). Or you can travel to Amsterdam after the EuroGames, to attend the Pride Amsterdam from 30 July to 7 August (https://pride.amsterdam/).

To ensure a great event, we wish to invite as many rowers as possible from all over Europe. Will you help us to reach all the rowers we can? If so, please share this e-mail with as many rowers, umpires and others associated with rowing as you can.

You can register via the website and also find more information there. We will keep you informed.

Met vriendelijke groet,

With kind regards,

Céderique Ortmans,

Coordinator Rowing EuroGames 2022 Nijmegen

T: +31 6 53 40 40 31

E: rowing@eurogames2022.eu

W: www.eurogames2022.eu

We do plan to host 2022 Sin City Erg in Las Vegas, United States on 16 January 2022, and we encourage anyone interested in learning more about the event to subscribe to our email list for updates and announcements.

Although there is a set of decision making protocols published by various national rowing federations for rowing competitions, our concerns about the 2021 event began to develop with the publication of an article on 02 April 2020 in Science Magazine, suggesting that the coronavirus spreads through the aerosolization of the virus.

As rowers, we all know how hard we’re breathing when doing a piece on the erg. Then more news began to emerge about super spreader events at choral events where people are exhaling forcefully. Over the next few months, the media and the focus of the coronavirus spread turned away from touching infected surfaces to wearing masks to avoid catching or spreading the virus. The issue culminated with the American president, Donald Trump, contracting the virus, and no mention in any media article was made of him or anyone around him having contracted the virus from touching an infected surface or from touching their faces or eyes. To us, it doesn’t seem like an indoor rowing event is well suited in the current Covid-19 environment.

Certainly, clubs do have outdoor erg sessions, even before the emergence of the coronavirus. To safely host an outdoor rowing event, competitors would have to be spaced at least six feet apart, and given what we now know about the aerosolization of Covid-19, the ergs would have to be spread much further apart. A recent article in MSN News published on 13 October 2020 does support the possibility of hosting an outdoor event. However, an erg competition requires that all the rowing machines be wired together and to a computer. There is a minimum distance from the computer to the first rowing machine and also between the machines.

The competitive fervor of the event comes from the close side-by-side proximity of the competitors as well as the visual display of progress of the competitors in a racetrack-like display projected on a screen. It is difficult to project the race display indoors and to try to display the video outdoors would be extremely challenging.

If an outdoor rowing event is pursued, then there is the weather, either too hot or perhaps too rainy, which in both cases is probable in Las Vegas in January. Finally, there is the issue of masks which seem antithetical to rowing fast on an erg, and even if we could hold an event with masks, the burden of ensuring everyone, spectator and competitor, is wearing a mask [properly, over nose and mouth] makes the event extremely challenging, potentially a liability for GLRF, and turns the event from enthusiasm into unpleasant enforcement.

We held out hope that perhaps a vaccine would emerge that would allow the Sin City Erg to proceed but three media articles spread really cold water on that arousing hope:

• a Marketwatch interview on 01 August 2020 with Dr. Michael Osterholm, epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, who states that the virus will be around for our lifetime and that effective vaccines are a long ways off.
  
• a Politico article published on 25 September 2020 that predicts how the Pandemic will finally end, suggesting that a return to normal will take place around November 2021.
  
• a Wall Street Journal interview published on 07 September 2020 with the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, who projected that workers could return to work around six months after a vaccine had been distributed. His statement implies when corporations will feel comfortable having people congregate closely, something that is a fundamental part of an erg event.
  

We also have subscriptions to daily email updates from the New York Times Coronavirus Briefing and the Los Angeles Times Coronavirus Today. The news in the past few weeks has been extremely discouraging as the rate of new infections has risen at an alarming rate. Two recent media articles about the rise of the infections helped cement our decision to cancel:

• a MSN News Intelligencer opinion article dated 12 October 2020 that predicts “a fall and winter could make the cornonavirus not just more infectious but more lethal likely…”
  
• a Wall Street Journal article dated 15 October 2020 that looks at why Covid-19 is spreading again, and points to an issue the LGBTQ+ community can totally relate: being safe fatigue.
  

Finally, we found this Motley Fool article dated 06 October 2020 that paints a bleak picture of how Clark County and the City of Las Vegas are embracing a virus-safe environment.

All of these factors point to the possibility of infections among spectators, volunteers, and participants. For us, even one infection is too many.

GLRF has been monitoring the Eurogames 2020 website for any updates. On 16 April 2020, the Eurogames 2020 organization announced the postponment of the event with no proposed or published future date. If you read the news announcement, it implies that the Eurogames 2020 organizing committee is hoping to bump their event into 2021, thereby pushing future Eurogames events further out.

Of equal importance is the legal terms of the status of the event: postponed and not cancelled. This affects any athlete who has registered and paid. In effect, it delays or prevents the automatic issuance of refunds. The language of the Eurogames 2020 announcement about refunds appears bewildering. They state that while the event is in the postponment status, there is no effect [change] on potential refunds. However, if you read their earlier news post, Eurogames 2020 did change the terms and conditions such that the regular cancellation deadline has been moved back to 30 June 2020.

Still confused? If we are correctly connecting the dots, an athlete who has registered may request a cancellation refund, if they want, between now and 30 June 2020. Reading the Terms section of the website, section 7, Cancellation Policy:

• if you cancel by 30 June 2020, you get a 50% refund of the 'participation fee' which is Euro 80 for EGLSF members and Euro 100 for non-EGLSF members. The terms do not address the sports fee, which for rowing is Euro 20. The terms seem to imply that sports fees, similar to purchased tickets, are non-refundable.
  
• if you cancel after 30 June 2020, you can get a 50% refund but only if you provide proof of illness.
  
• if the event is cancelled by Eurogames 2020 organizers, a refund of at least 70% of all fees will be made (implying that the refund could be more, and since they say "all fees," that might include the sports fees.)
  

Obviously, an event cancellation means a huge loss of income to Eurogames 2020 and that explains their deliberate use of the term postponment. This is no different than the San Diego Crew Classic which canceled their event this spring. In the Crew Classic email that was sent to vendors, they asked vendors to forego a refund and receive a 50% discount on a vendor booth for 2021. The Crew Classic organizing committee, while not sharing the actual financials, implied in their email that the event cancellation would have a massive financial impact on their organization and their ability to host the event going forward.

The Rowing The World tours are full package vacations (holidays).  The first LGBTQ+-focused trip will be magical Lago Maggiore in northern Italy, with a 7-day rowing tour beginning 27 September 2020. http://lgbtrowingtour.glrf.info  Everyone is welcome to enjoy the trip.  You certainly do not have to be a member of the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation.  However, one of the benefits of our partnership with Rowing The World is a CDN$100 discount for GLRF OnTheWater members for the trip.

Although GLRF OnTheWater members do receive a tour discount, there are no revenue sharing arrangements with Rowing The World. All participants, including GLRF staff, pay the same tour price. For GLRF, the partnership creates an additional benefit for its members, to enjoy rowing in a recreational format with a community-focused environment. Note that Rowing The World offers a further discount if five or more members join the tour from one club.  

If you or any of your club members have any questions, please contact Rowing The World at https://rowingtheworld.com/contact/  and you can also use this link to sign up for their general email list.

Here is a link to the poster promoting the rowing tour.  We hope you will post it at your club or forward it along to your members.

Ciao!

Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are becoming ubiquitous, so we thought that we would catch that wave (yeah, I keep thinking back to crossing the bar in Noosa). This year we have two speciality tours: Women's Only on the Thames and the LGBQ+ focused rowing tour on Lago Maggiore. Register by midnight on Monday 02 December for either and enjoy a $100 or 85 € discount. Did you know that Air Canada and other airlines also have sales on right now?

Fantastico!!!

Meraviglioso!!!

The 2018-2019 Florida Rowing Center Season's online registration is now open.

Click here to register for your session.

****

Work with our top notch coaching staff to raise your sculling to the next level.

Read about the Florida Rowing Center's Professional Coaching Staff.

Tuition includes:coaching, videotaping with critique, use of Florida Rowing Center's equipment for the on-water sessions daily hot breakfast with the coaches and other students a Florida Rowing Center T-shirt. A 10% discount is applied if booked one month in advance. We also offer group rates.

For program questions please email: info@floridarowingcenter.com

211 Palm Beach/Treasure Coast PO Box 3588 Lantana, FL 33465