World Rowing, Concept2 Set Sights on Esports Games
In an effort to make indoor rowing more accessible and engaging for all, World Rowing and Concept2 have furthered their existing partnership with the mission of giving Indoor, ‘Connected’ Rowing a global interest.
“Rowing has evolved in recent years and the inclusion involves costal rowing in LA in 2028 as a strand of World Rowing and indoor rowing is the third strand,” stated Concept2 managing director Alex Dunne. “We as Concept2 are a manufacturer. We’ve always worked with outside bodies to facilitate their events. World Rowing is the governing body. They are responsible for the sport of rowing globally and it’s important for us to work with them to take the best from each party and push the sport forward.”
Indoor Rowing was selected to exhibit at the IOC Esports week in Singapore and both World Rowing and Concept2 have their sights on the Esports Games, as recently announced by the International Olympic Committee.
“There are a number of different sports federations that are bidding to be part of the Olympic Esports Games and World Rowing is working on that at the moment—hoping to get indoor rowing into the event,” said Dunne. “Some elements will be very much traditional gaming, and some will be more physical. Probably the best example is cycling where they do a full indoor championship. Rowing is very much along cycling in that respect. For decades now we’ve all raced on indoor rowers in big championships so taking that model and developing it into something that would suit the Esports Games is a project that’s going on at the moment.”
World Rowing and Concept2 have a longstanding partnership based around the World Rowing Indoor Championships. Concept2 has worked with small clubs hosting erg racing all the way up to the international stage.
“We had a couple of events in the States and we came to Paris in 2020,” recalled Dunne. “Then COVID-19 pandemic happened and in-person events were difficult for a couple of years, so we worked with them on the virtual World Rowing Indoor Championships. That came back to Prague this year as an in-person event. The idea of the partnership is to just work more closely together in general around the sport of indoor rowing to have events indoor events.”
World Rowing along with Concept2 will put on the 2025 World Rowing Indoor Championships across two weekends in February. With this new agreement Concept2 has become a global partner of the governing body and will be the presenting sponsor of the World Rowing and European Rowing Indoor Championships until 2028.
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