European Rowing Championships

History

The first regatta held as a European Rowing Championships was held in 1893, and regattas continued under that name until the 1960s. As of 1962, the event was replaced (one year in four) by the World Rowing Championships, which then became an annual event from 1974. Women's events were introduced in 1954, the first international races for women, but even then men's and women's events were held on different days.

On 27 May 2006 the FISA members voted to re-introduce a separate European Rowing Championships in its own right.

In the first event there were only 3 events (men's single, coxed four and eight) and only ten entries. Races were 3,000 m long, except for singles – which were only 2,000 m.

In 2007, when the European Rowing Championship was re-introduced, there were 14 Olympic boat classes racing over 2,000m. Historically the leading European nations, notably Great Britain and Germany, had taken a haphazard approach to attending the championships. Following the 2012 Summer Olympics, however, both fully committed to the event going forward, and from that date, the championships have progressed rapidly to represent one of the key events in world rowing; given the historic and modern strength of European rowing, they rank behind only the Olympic Games, World Championships and World Cup Series. In Olympic years, when World Championships are not held, they provide a key test ahead of the Olympic regatta, in addition to a significant competitive opportunity in their own right.

In 2015, European Rowing announced that the 2018 edition of the championships would form part of the first European Championships, a co-branded multi-sport event organised by, and consisting of the European championships of, the individual European sports federations.