You Cannot Bluff a Boat: The World Gathers in Amsterdam

Later this month, from August 24 through 30, the fastest crews in the world will take to the Bosbaan in Amsterdam for the 2026 World Rowing Championships. Team USA arrives with real momentum: 23 medals across this season's World Cup circuit and, for the first time in the program's history, the Overall World Cup Points Trophy. 🚣

Rowing has a way of stripping everything down to what is true. You cannot bluff a boat. Eight rowers and a coxswain either find one rhythm or they do not; the water always knows the difference. I felt that in the women's eight at Montréal fifty years ago, and I feel it still whenever a crew catches the same beat and simply flies.

Every athlete who will line up in Amsterdam started somewhere small: a first lesson, a borrowed shell, a coach who believed. That is the whole point of what we build. Sport belongs to everyone, including the child who has never seen a racing shell up close and is about to fall in love with the pull of the oar.

To everyone racing at the end of this month: row your race. 💙 Who taught you to love being on the water?