2026 World Rowing Indoor Championships

World Rowing has recently announced their plans for the World Rowing Indoor Championships for 2026, with the aim being to have two separate events, one virtual and one in-person. 

The virtual edition will take place in February 2026 and aims to bring together athletes from across the globe over three new race formats: 1000m, 5000m, and 1-minute to encourage participation from as wide a range of competitors as possible. 

Each event will feature age-group and open weight and lightweight categories plus Men and Women para categories. 

Entries open in November, and the race will be run over two weekends. The weekend of February 21-22 will see Continental Heats. These are for everyone who has entered (no pre-qualification) and will be an online race. The top athletes from these heats will then compete in semi-finals and finals on Saturday, February 28, except for the 5000m where it will be a straight final. Everything on finals day will be broadcast live on World Rowing’s YouTube channel. 

Later in the year, World Rowing is aiming to hold an in-person World Rowing Indoor Championship. This will be over the traditional 2000m and 500m distances and will be an opportunity for the indoor rowing community to meet up at a world championship for the first time since Prague in February 2024. The date and venue will hopefully be announced in the next few months. 

For more information on the championships, please visit World Rowing’s website.