Adapting to Climate Change When Rowing
As a sport that takes place outside, rowing is very aware of how climate change affects the sport. In 2019, World Rowing signed the Sports for Climate Action Framework, which is part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Climate change affects different parts of the world in different ways, of course. In general, there will be more extreme weather, such as rising sea levels, flooding, drought, and heat waves.
Terry Dillon, the CEO of Rowing Canada Aviron, says
“There are clubs and waterways where we work that are very much at risk because of how rising water levels and changing weather patterns are affecting them.”
The effects of climate change on rowing can also be seen in things like lower water levels caused by drought, changes to training and regatta schedules caused by weather events, and the effects of heat.
Dr. Ulrike Lohmann is an expert on climate change and a professor at ETH Zurich. She is also a masters rower in Switzerland and has noticed that more regattas have been canceled because of the changing weather patterns. “In general, there is more extreme weather, like higher wind speeds, which have made it harder to train and run regattas.
“From what I’ve heard, rivers with fast currents have more flooding problems. Over the past few years, the current in Basel, Switzerland, has been a problem, especially in the spring when there is more flooding. Then, because of a drought, there isn’t enough water in the Rhine to row.
Lohmann noticed in 2022 that the international rowing season was dry because of a high-pressure system over Europe. Heat has also caused problems at regattas. Rowing has changed over time.
“The Swiss Championships were going on, and a heat wave was coming, so we changed the regatta schedule. Lohmann says, “We started earlier, wore caps, and stayed in t-shirts.”
Lohmann says that the world’s temperature is likely to change by 1.1 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. “As a result of climate change, temperatures are getting warmer, and they are also getting wider” (around the globe). Every 20 years, things that only happen once every 100 years will happen.
Since most rowing takes place in the summer (especially international regattas), World Rowing has made rules about how to stay safe in hot weather and during regattas. Along with air temperature, humidity is a big part of what the rules say. This shows how the “Wet Bulb Globe Temperature” is used.
Selwyn Jackson, who is on the World Rowing Events Commission, became interested in heat readings a number of years ago. “They have a tool that tells them the humidity, wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), and the temperature of the air around them.”
Jackson says that humidity is the main problem. “51 degrees Celsius is not too bad if the humidity is only a few percent.”
The World Rowing Medical Commission has made guidelines for heat safety.
Rosie Mayglothling, chair of World Rowing’s Competitive Rowing Commission, has been going to rowing regattas for decades and is well aware of how important it is to adapt to climate change, especially because of the heat.
Mayglothling says, “We’re more aware of it and check it more often, especially with the web bulb temperature.” “It was very hot during this year’s Under 23 Championships, and we were worried that they wouldn’t be able to happen. There is more cause for worry now.”
Mayglothling says that for World Rowing events, they want to be more ready for bad weather with back-up plans and other options. “We’re trying to get things in order.”
Mayglothling is from Great Britain, so she knows what it means for rowing in the area. One of these is that low river levels make it hard to train. “The last big drought in the UK was in 1976, and there hasn’t been one since.” Last summer, parts of rivers and lakes where rowers train were hard to use because the water levels were low. Mayglothling says that low water levels must be making some rowing clubs unhappy.
So how can rowing change?
Lohmann says that regatta sites could be better chosen. For example, stay away from places where it might be very hot.
Lohmann says, “Rowing can’t do much.” “The sport can’t go virtual the way it is now. You have to go to the same place as your competitors to row against them.
But Lohmann thinks that people who row on the coast are better able to handle bad weather. And there are many things that can be done to help stop climate change. One that is very important: “Don’t fly,” says Lohmann.
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