Olympics

Qualification for Paris – the story so far

Words: Rachel Quarrell

More than two hundred days on from the end of the 2023 World Championships, and there’s just one qualification regatta left to allocate racing spots at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. With the European qualifying regatta just concluded in windy Szeged we are nearly at a full house, and have only the Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta (FOPQR) in Lucerne at the end of May yet to come. Meanwhile 35 new countries have added themselves to the guest list in the seven months since the Worlds in Belgrade last September.

The qualification diversification plan is working: countries which didn’t reach the finals at the 2023 Worlds will outnumber those who did – at the Olympics and won’t be far behind at the Paralympics.

Continental qualification regattas are peculiar things: tiny numbers of competitors, lots of officials, but an intense atmosphere. There are no medal presentations or anthems for the qualifiers, even if the event is combined with the continental championships, just a short celebration ceremony, though with the usual amount of hand-shaking. Unlike the Worlds, anyone who bags a Paris place at these competitions or the FOPQR must race this event (i.e. boat class) if they race at the Olympics/ Paralympics at all.†

Africa kicked off first, the AOPQR being held on Lake Tunis, its usual venue, only a month after the 2023 World Championships. The growing rowing scene in several African countries then posed a problem, since Egypt and Tunisia each finished high enough to qualify in three or more Olympic events. The limit for continental qualification is two crews maximum (one if you already qualified one crew at the Worlds), so then their quota is reduced by taking the highest-ranked crews in their team in the qualifying regatta events.