St. Catharines, Ontario—home of the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta—hosted all three World Rowing Championships at once on Martindale Pond in late August.
The U.S. won a single gold medal in each of the under-19 and under-23 championships but by winning only a silver medal extended a senior World Rowing Championship gold-medal drought dating to 2019. Host country Canada was completely shut out, winning no medals.
Comprised of 41 events across three typically separate World Rowing Championships, Mega Worlds featured 14 under-19 events, 21 under-23 events, and six senior events. Combined in an Olympic year, as they were in 2016 in Rotterdam, Mega Worlds gives national teams and World Rowing a single destination in a year when they must travel also to the Olympic and Paralympic regattas.
Romania topped the under-19 medal table with four golds. Italy won six total medals, three of them gold, while Greece also won three golds out of four medals total. The U.S. landed sixth on the U19 medals table, with four medals altogether, all in coxed sweep events: a gold in the women’s eight, a silver in the men’s eight, and bronzes in both coxed fours.
Great Britain topped all nations in under-23 events, winning five golds and a bronze. Germany also had a remarkably successful regatta, winning four golds, a silver, and three bronze medals. The U.S. was sixth on the medals table, with a gold and four silvers.
Ireland and Italy tied atop the senior Worlds medal table with a gold and a bronze each. The silver medal in the men’s lightweight quad landed the U.S. tied with Paraguay and Peru in eighth.
While the Olympics and under-19 Worlds have achieved gender equity in number of events, under-23 and senior World Rowing Championships have not, with a combined 15 men’s and 12 women’s events.
The U.S. women’s under-23 coxed four of coxswain Carly Legenzowski, bow Olivia Bachert, Olivia Meskan, Jordan Freer, and stroke Anna Garrison won silver behind New Zealand and ahead of Italy and Canada at the 2024 World Rowing Under 23 Championships, the best finish for the U.S. since 2018. Photo by Lisa Worthy.The lightweight men’s quad of bow James McCullough, Casey Howshall, Ian Richardson, and stroke Jasper Liu won the sole U.S. medal, a silver, at the senior World Rowing Championships. Mexico won gold, less than four-tenths of a second ahead of the U.S. Photo by Lisa Worthy.The U.S. eight of Carly Brown, Lauren Dubois, Charlotte Jett, Claire Van Praagh, Cecily Shaber, Lia Nathan, Emily Tierney, Delaney Lundberg, and Lucy Herrick won the World Rowing Under 19 Championships. Coach Caitlin McClain’s crew had an open-water lead at the 1,000-meter mark and crossed the finish line more than five seconds ahead of Great Britain in second place. Photo by Lisa Worthy.The U.S. men’s under-19 eight of Keenan Heinz, Taeden Landa, Bailey Foster, Ori Radwin, Tyler Murphy, Kyle Fox, Fran McGrath, Hugh Ryan, and Michael Kain finished second to Great Britain to win silver ahead of Germany (bronze), New Zealand, France, and Canada at Mega Worlds. Photo by Lisa Worthy.
