Most sports are inclusive and have shed, or are shedding, their exclusionary roots and barriers to entry to embrace, respect and protect diversity and groups traditionally unwelcomed.
We’re witnessing it in sports like gymnastics, ice hockey, soccer and swimming, where mats, rinks, the pitch and pools are browning as more Black athletes and fans participate in the sports at all levels.
Unfortunately, some sports continue to face challenges in trying to change their reputation and appearance.
Rowing is one of those sports.
Rowing, or crew, is known as a rich white sport largely devoid of Black and Brown faces. It presents many barriers to entry for Black and Brown communities including access to resources, equipment costs, location, lack of diversity and inclusion and a general apathy by these communities for the sport.
But now US Rowing is trying to change this scenario.
Under new CEO Amanda Kraus, US Rowing recognizes the need for honest change and is enacting measures to change both perceptions and participation.
“I’m looking forward to helping the sport better reflect the rich diversity of this country,” Kraus said when she was hired in 2020. “For too long, our idea of a ‘rower’ has been limited, and it’s time to bust open that door, to welcome all who want to row, to celebrate diversity and to redefine what and who a rower can be. I truly believe that only good can come from this effort.”
After speaking with Kraus, who spent 18 years as the Founder and CEO of Row New York showing that rowing was for everyone, I knew she was sincere.
Recruiting participants who don’t look like traditional rowers is a difficult challenge, particularly when most Black and Brown communities are focused on sports like basketball and football.
But bobsledding is doing it thanks to athletes like Elana Myers Taylor and Jamaican sprinters and the film “Cool Runnings.”
Swimming is doing it through companies like Soul Cap, athletes such as Alice Dearing and Simone Manuel and the success of the Howard swimming and diving team.
Even hockey will soon have its first HBCU team at Tennessee St.
But Black people rowing? The jokes tell themselves.
Yet to US rowing and the inner-city groups and athletes it works with, it’s not a joke. It’s a mission it takes very seriously. So much so that inclusion is one of the three pillars of the organization’s strategic plan.
“We pledge to devote time and resources to make a lasting impact and be an agent of positive change in our rowing community and broader society,” US Rowing states on its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources page.
But how do you convince a young Black boy or girl, and their parents, that they should try rowing, especially when they might not even swim?
You do it by investing the time, resources and honest efforts into working with people and organizations that these potential athletes can identify with. That’s why US Rowing began working with organizations and individuals based in cities like Philadelphia, LA, Chicago, Seattle, New York and Newark.
“At the national governing body level, we’re trying to lift the image of the sport,” Kraus told me during our interview. “But clubs, programs and leaders do the heavy lifting.”
Some of those doing the heavy lifting include the aforementioned Row New York, Brick City Rowing in Newark, NJ and Philadelphia native, Maurice Scott, Jr.
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