Breaking the Streak
The U.S. National Team women’s four highlighted a two-gold, four-medal performance at the 2025 World Rowing Championships in Shanghai in late September.
The U.S. finished fifth on the medals table, tied with Ireland. Great Britain, China, and The Netherlands topped the table, with three golds each. Romania won two golds and three silvers, including the inaugural running of the mixed eight.
With the victories, USRowing broke a five-year winless streak at senior worlds, with gold medals in the women’s four and lightweight single. The U.S. women’s pair of Jess Thoennes and Holly Drapp won bronze, as did the men’s eight.
“They did a great job, well executed. All credit to the women,” said Josy Verdonkschot, The McLane Family Chief High Performance Officer for USRowing.
The U.S. women’s four of bow Camille Vandermeer, Azja Czajkowski, Teal Cohen, and stroke Kaitlin Knifton trailed the fast-starting British and Dutch crews in the first 500, powered through the field to take a length lead in the middle of the race, and then hung on to win the gold, less than a second ahead of Romania in second and New Zealand in third. The Netherlands, Great Britain, and China rounded out the A final.
It had been six years since a U.S. crew last won a senior World Rowing championship event (in the women’s lightweight double and PR3 pair at Linz Ottensheim, Austria, in 2019). The U.S. men’s four won Olympic gold in Paris last summer, but the senior men haven’t won a World Rowing championship gold since 2009 in the men’s coxed pair and 2008 in the men’s lightweight eight—events canceled by World Rowing since then.
Lightweight single sculler Michelle Sechser added a second gold for the U.S. with the full support of U.S. Olympic rowing boss Josy Verdonkschot, who said he was more than happy to support Sechser in the non-Olympic event.
“She thoroughly enjoyed it,” said Verdonkschot, who believes the team has a responsibility to athletes like Sechser who have given “so much over so many years” to Olympic pursuits. “All credit to her to pull it off.”
The U.S. women’s pair of Washington alumnae Thoennes and Drapp won bronze less than a second back from the French pair and more then 10 seconds ahead of the Italians but more than five seconds behind Romania, whose stroke Simona Radis went on to win another worlds gold in the mixed eight.
After leading the field off the start, stroked by Olympian Pieter Quinton in the same seat, the U.S. men’s eight battled the defending Olympic-champion Brits for second down the course as the Dutch slipped away to a length lead. Great Britain nipped the U.S. at the line for silver, but it was a promising performance for the American big boat, with the rest of the A final field open-water behind.
For coxswain Rachel Rane, it was her first medal at a senior worlds.
“Nobody I’d rather do it with than these guys. I’m grateful,” said the Texas alumna, who won back-to-back NCAA national championships in 2021 and ’22 and gold in the U.S. women’s eight at the 2022 World Rowing Under-23 Championships. “I’m excited to see what’s next.
“We prepare. Everything that gets thrown our way, whether it’s wind or wake, we turn it into an advantage as much as we can.”
Half of the oarsmen in the U.S. men’s eight were entered also as the U.S. men’s four. In the overwhelming heat and humidity of Shanghai, they backed off their racing efforts in the second half of the B final of the four after failing to make the A final.
Technical difficulties with the boots that hold the bows of boats at the start as well as other delays led to long days on the water in sweltering conditions that Verdonkschot called “a little bit over the edge.” Still, it was a bad look for a U.S. National Team crew at a World Rowing championship. Asked if he was OK with the men’s four shutting down, the normally loquacious Verdonkschot paused and said, “No.”
Many big-boat crews doubled up in the four and eight, something World Rowing needs to have happen in the Olympic regattas to come, where quotas limit qualification spots to only seven eights and nine fours. With the elimination of repechage heats after the Paris Games, the racing becomes even less compelling to watch, with just three- and four-boat heats in the eights leading to the final, if no one doubles up.
The International Olympic Committee wants medal-awarding A finals on more than just the last two days of the Olympic regatta and full six-lane races in the daily two-hour TV broadcast windows. Combined with the tides that affect the course currently selected for the LA2028 Games, it’s a tall order for World Rowing to figure out a fair and workable regatta schedule.
The women’s eight, featuring a healthy field of 10 entries, provided a preview of what racing could look like at the Los Angeles Olympics if organizers stick to their announced plan to race 1,500 meters instead of the standard 2,000 because of limitations of the chosen course in Long Beach.
Romania went off at 49 strokes a minute, and the Dutch crew, full of Olympic medalists, raced past it with relatively short, punchy strokes to take an almost length lead after the first 500 meters. Both crews never settled below 40, racing mostly at 42 and 43 strokes per minute and leaving all others—rowing longer strokes at lower ratings—a length or more behind.
Racing in the U.S women’s eight gave seven of the crew their first senior World Rowing championship experiences, as only coxswain Nina Castanga and Charlotte Buck had been there before.
“This was the year to find new people,” Verdonkschot said. “Some really good.”
Their fifth-place finish duplicated the disappointing fifth at last year’s Paris Olympics.
In preparation for racing a shortened Olympic distance in 2028—a decision to which USRowing was “not a partner” (Verdonkschot)—an elite-level international regatta will be held on the shorter Olympic course in Long Beach next fall.
The purpose will be to “see what the problems are,” Verdonkschot said, and a follow-up regatta may occur in 2027. Besides the shorter distance, the proposed course also experiences tides, with a slack tide for “only a fraction of the day.”
“If it’s not consistent, it’s not fair,” Verdonkschot said, “especially with the new progression system. With the number of boats that participate, it’s one race to decide who goes to the final. No one wants to be working for four years and find out it’s going to be a lottery. The only thing I want is to have fair racing.”
Verdonkschot came to the U.S. preaching the need for more sculling and small-boat rowing in a nation where the eight remains the premier event and almost sole determinant of championships, from scholastic through collegiate rowing. Over the past 30 years (not including this year), the average finish of U.S. National Team senior eights has been silver for the women and fourth for the heavyweight men. For sculling events, only the women’s quad and lightweight double have averaged A final appearances, both sixth.
The best domestic programs, such as the University of Washington (which traditionally selects fall head-race eights from pairs trials) have trained in pairs and sculling boats for years.
“It’s not perfect but it teaches self-reliance as well as teamwork,” said Washington men’s coach Michael Callahan. The Huskies pick both their Head of the Lake (Seattle) and Head of the Charles lineups using pairs and singles, with top oarsmen rowing in pairs.
“Development guys race singles for lineups in eights and coxed fours,” Callahan said.
Small-boat and sculling events are proving most popular at regattas, such as October’s Benderson Chase at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, where the youth-sculling events drew the biggest fields by far.
In addition to relishing the two golds and a bronze won in Olympic events at this year’s worlds, Verdonkschot is optimistic that as many as 17 Olympians—one third of the Paris squad—will be coming back to compete for spots in the crews that will race in LA2028. Some have taken a year away to heal injuries, to start families, and to complete studies. All will be competing for a place on a team that is the best in the world in two events—for the first time since 2019.
There should be fewer platitudes like “headed in the right direction” and “made more A finals than ever” now that the U.S. women have won worlds golds to go with the men’s Olympic gold and bronze from Paris. The next step is up, to the dominating level of The Netherlands, Great Britain, and Romania, however long and fair the Olympic racecourse is for 2028.
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