Академическая гребля в США: история и особенности

Team sport version of rowing practiced by universities in the United States

Rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport in the United States. The first intercollegiate race was a contest between Yale and Harvard in 1852. Some concern has been raised that some recent female numbers are inflated by non competing novices. Men's rowing has organized collegiate championships in various forms since 1871. The Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) has been the de facto national championship for men since 1895. Women's rowing initially competed in its intercollegiate championships as part of the National Women's Rowing Association Championship in 1971. From 1980 through 1996, the women's national championships races were conducted at the National Collegiate Rowing Championships in Cincinnati. In the 1996–97 season, most women's intercollegiate rowing programs elected to join the NCAA as a "Championship" sport. Men's rowing declined to join the NCAA, but virtually all colleges abide by NCAA regulations. Other governing bodies of college rowing in the United States include the American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA).

When Canadian sculler Joseph Wright began coaching at Penn in 1916, he discovered that he had a number of smaller but excellent oarsmen. His idea of creating a crew composed entirely of these lighter weight rowers—averaging 150 pounds per man—quickly spread to other institutions, and by 1919 the American Rowing Association officially recognized competition in lightweight rowing by 150 pounders in eight oared shells. The initial weight difference between lightweights and heavyweights of that era—about 20 pounds—was not particularly substantial. In fact, lightweight rowers weights were much closer to the heavyweight crews of that era than they are now. For men, the maximum weight is currently 160 lbs. For women, the weight limit is 130 lbs. Rowers must propel the weight of their equipment and coxswain as well as their own weight down the race course. The weight of equipment and coxswain is roughly the same for heavyweights and lightweights. As a generalization, the greater the strength, endurance and perseverance of a rower—as compared to the total weight he or she must propel down the course—the greater the speed. In rowing, taller individuals have a leverage advantage, and, as a rule, heavier individuals tend to have more absolute strength to allocate not only to themselves but also to the weight of the equipment and coxswain. A top heavyweight boat will thus be faster than a top lightweight boat, but a top lightweight boat will be faster than many heavyweight boats. For example, the winning lightweight men's 8 at the 2015 to 2019 IRAs was faster than the finals time for all but 6 to 12 heavyweights 8s. There are races for both men's and women's lightweight rowing. However, many of the smaller colleges have limited sized programs and simply field open weight boats, which include rowers who would qualify as lightweights, and many larger Division I A universities, cognizant of Title IX issues, have limited the size of their men's programs. This is especially apparent in the west, where California Lightweight Crew remains one of the few programs for men's lightweight rowing in that region. However, on the east coast, most Ivy League and EARC schools have well populated, excellent, fast and well funded men's lightweight teams. The lightweight men's events at the Eastern Sprints and the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship (IRAs) are fiercely contested. For example, the time difference between the first and sixth lightweight men's varsity 8 at the 2019 IRAs was only 1.7 seconds—less than half a length.

Since rowing is such a technical sport, there is a separate category for novices (rowers with less than one year of experience). This is usually combined with freshman rowers, who may have rowed before in high school, but are in their first year in collegiate rowing. The Freshman squad is sometimes open only to college freshmen. However, people who start rowing after their freshman year normally join the novice team as well. The novice squad usually fields a freshman eight oared boat (8+), and if the team is big enough, a second eight, and/or a four oared boat (4+). In some collegiate conferences excluding the EARC and Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA), collegiate freshmen/novice can also compete as part of the varsity squad. At the 2012 IRA Steward's annual meeting it was voted to repeal the ban on freshmen competing as part of their varsity squad. In the league the term 'First Year Collegiate Rower' will now be used to describe Freshmen/Novice rowing.

Rowing is one of the few collegiate sports where athletes practice year round and compete during both spring and fall. In addition many athletes train at various rowing clubs around the country during the summer.

In the fall, most schools focus on building technical proficiency and improving physical strength and endurance. This is typically accomplished through long steady practice pieces, with occasional shorter interval pieces. In the United States fall is also the season of head races which are typically between three and six kilometers. These longer races are part of the foundation for the spring season, building the rower's endurance and mental toughness. The largest fall race is the Head of the Charles Regatta held in Boston each October. This race includes rowers of all ages, abilities, and affiliations and features the best college crews in competition with Olympic level athletes from the United States and other countries. The largest collegiate only regatta in the fall is the Princeton Chase, typically in early November on Lake Carnegie in Princeton, New Jersey, and hosted by Princeton University. Also held in late fall, Rutgers hosts the Rutgers Fall Classic for collegiate first year and novice crews on the Raritan River in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

This is an intense building period for the spring racing season. The training regimen consists primarily of long interval training, which gradually becomes shorter and more intense as the race season approaches. This is done on the water for schools below the snowline. And for some of the northern colleges that practice on lakes and rivers which are frozen during winter, these pieces are done using ergometers and, if the college is lucky enough to have them, rowperfect rowing simulators and indoor rowing tanks. Additionally, most schools, regardless of whether they have water to row on, do ergometer testing (all out maximum performance test), weights, stadium stairs and long runs. A few colleges and universities send their fastest rowers to the CRASH B Sprints in Boston. This 2,000 meter race is held on ergometers and features separate events for collegiate athletes. Many northeastern colleges have a winter training trip to a warmer state such as Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas during either winter break or spring break to give students extra time on the water while the local rivers and lakes are frozen.

Spring is the primary season for college rowing, and the majority of the schedule is composed of dual races. These 2,000 meter races take place between two, or sometimes three, schools. The winner of these races usually receive shirts from the losing teams. There are also several large regattas, such as the Dad Vail Regatta, Eastern Sprints, Knecht Cup, and the San Diego Crew Classic which may be on the schedule. In this case, the teams compete in either flights, in which the winner is final, or a series of heats and semifinals before the winners move on to the finals. Sprint races begin with all teams lined up and started simultaneously, as opposed to the time trials in the fall. Performing well in these races is the most important selection criteria for the various post season invitation rowing championships. If the crew is in a league, the dual race and regatta results will also typically be used in determining the team's seeding for the league championship. The Dad Vail Regatta is the largest and most prestigious for smaller schools and is held every May in Philadelphia. The lightweight division becomes more prominent during the spring. Many head races lack separate categories for heavyweight/lightweight, but many spring races have a separate weight category for lighter rowers.

The Intercollegiate Rowing Association, known as the IRA, was founded by Cornell, Columbia, and Penn in 1894 and its first annual regatta was hosted on June 24, 1895. Today Navy and Syracuse are also members of the association. Each year these five schools choose whom to invite to the regatta and are responsible for its organization along with the ECAC. The IRA is the oldest college rowing championship in the United States. Since the 1920s, when the West Coast crews, notably California and University of Washington began to attend and regularly win, most crews considered the Intercollegiate Rowing Association's championship to be a de facto national championship. Two important crews, Harvard and Yale, however, did not participate in the heavyweight divisions of the event. After losing to Cornell in 1897, Harvard and Yale chose to avoid the IRA, so as not to diminish the Harvard Yale race. It soon became part of each school's tradition not to go. Beginning in 1973, Washington decided to skip the IRA because a change in schedule conflicted with its finals. Even though rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport, the men have always chosen not to join the NCAA. If they did, the NCAA would sponsor a championship, but it would also force the sport to abide by NCAA rules and mandates. Notwithstanding, collegiate crews generally abide by NCAA rules, and they also have to abide by athletic conference rules, which mirror the NCAA rules. In 1982, a Harvard alumnus decided to remedy this perceived problem by establishing a heavyweight varsity National Collegiate Rowing Championship race in Cincinnati, Ohio. It paid for the winners of the Pac 10 Championship, the Eastern Sprints, the IRA and the Harvard Yale race to attend. It was a finals only event and other crews could attend if they paid their own way and there was room in the field. The winner received an expense paid trip to the Henley Royal Regatta as a prize. After 1996, however, the race was discontinued. Given Washington's return to the IRA in 1995 and the demise of the National Collegiate Rowing Championship, the IRA again was considered to be the national championship. In 2003, Harvard and Yale, after an absence of over one hundred years, decided to participate. For men's rowing the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia is considered the national championship for smaller college teams unable to compete at the IRA standard (similar to Division III or I AA in other sports). It is the largest collegiate race in the nation. Starting in 2008, club crews (non Varsity programs) were no longer allowed to participate in the IRA Regatta, and the ACRA National Championship Regatta is considered the National Championship for collegiate club programs and all programs outside the NCAA/IRA structure. Unlike most collegiate sports, club level crews regularly compete against Varsity programs and are often competitive.

Between 1967 and 1980, women's collegiate boats entered the National Women's Rowing Association National Championships (what is now the USRowing National Championships). The college boats raced against club boats, including boats from outside the United States. The best finishing US collegiate boat was deemed to be the National Champion. The first women's collegiate championship was held in 1980 at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This race was open solely to collegiate rowing teams. Since 1997, the NCAA has hosted an invitational rowing championship for women. Unlike the former women's collegiate championship, the NCAA does not have a championship race for women's lightweight rowing. In response, the IRA hosts a women's lightweight event. The NCAA currently hosts championships for Division I, Division II and Division III colleges, with Divisions II and III having been added in 2002. NCAA Division I requires colleges to enter two eight oared shells and one four oared shell in the team championship. The championship is restricted to eleven conference champions (American, ACC, A10, Big Ten, Big 12, CAA, Ivy, MAAC, Pac 12, Patriot, and WCC) as automatic qualifiers and eleven at large schools for a total of twenty two teams. The at large teams are selected by the NCAA Division I Women's Rowing Committee. The NCAA Division II championship consists of an eight oared shells and four oared shell competition. The Division III championship involved both varsity and second varsity eights competing in the same event until 2012. Beginning in 2013, the V 1 and V 2 boats compete in separate events.

The ECAC/Metro League is a women's rowing conference. The participating schools are: Buffalo, Colgate, Delaware, Fordham, UMass, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Villanova, and West Virginia. Most of these schools have dual conference memberships in rowing.

Prior to the formation of the Mid Atlantic Rowing Conference, the nine charter member schools—Bryn Mawr College, Franklin & Marshall College, Johns Hopkins University, Marietta College, the University of Mary Washington, North Park University, Richard Stockton College, Rutgers University–Camden, and Washington College—enjoyed an affiliation due to their annual competition at the Mid Atlantic Division III Rowing Championships, formerly the Atlantic Collegiate League Sprints Championships. In late 2008, the rowing programs at the nine schools expressed a common desire to formalize their association in order to enhance the student athlete experience for their rowers. From that desire, the Mid Atlantic Rowing Conference was born in January 2009 and the Mid Atlantic Division III Rowing Championships became the Mid Atlantic Rowing Conference Championships. +Mid Atlantic Rowing Conference Schools Men Women Adrian College Bulldogs Adrian College Bulldogs Catholic University Cardinals Catholic University Cardinals Franklin & Marshall College Diplomats Franklin & Marshall College Diplomats St. Mary's Seahawks St. Mary's Seahawks Stockton University Ospreys Stockton University Ospreys Washington College Shoremen Washington College Shorewomen – Bryn Mawr College Owls – Cabrini University Cavaliers – Johnson & Wales University Wildcats – North Park University Vikings – Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops

The Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association (WIRA) is an American collegiate conference that sponsors men's and women's rowing.