Sanction a Regatta

• Designated as meeting the highest standards of fairness and safety. 
• Receive compliance reports on participating clubs and athletes, as well as unlimited access to USRowing staff in supporting you to get to 100% compliance by the start of your regatta. 
• Option to run entries through the top rated, RegattaCentral platform. 
• The Local Organizing Committee, participants, and referees can rest easy knowing they’re insured at your event through USRowing’s insurance program.  
• Sanctioned Regattas that utilize Time Team as their timing contractor, will appear in an Athlete’s historical racing results available to view through their member portal account. 

• The host organization must be a current U.S. organizational member of USRowing with annual membership.  
• Sanctioning fees must be paid in full one month prior to the event. 
• The Chief Referee must be fully licensed with USRowing and all referees working the regatta must meet the requirements of an individual member.
• Any exceptions or amendments to USRowing rules must be submitted on the registered regatta application.

• If the LOC is not using RegattaCentral for registration services, the Regatta Director must submit the compliance of all clubs and athletes in attendance at the regatta prior to racing beginning. 

   

This option is for standard organizational members that do not participate in the USRowing insurance program, but want to utilize the USRowing Ref Corps and provide eligibility for Organizational Plus members to compete. It provides coverage for USRowing Referees ONLY. Submission of a current Certificate of Insurance (COI) that meets USRowing Insurance program requirements and names USRowing as an additional insured will be required for approval.  

USRowing has created a Virtual option for organizational members that are not able to hold a traditional on the water or indoor regatta.  

Chief Referees are required for all sanctioning tiers except for Duals/Tris.

Clubs must be current organizational members of USRowing. For clubs that do not operate annually, a one-time Regatta Pass is available to purchase through the USRowing member portal.  

• Athletes must meet all requirements found on the Individual Membership Page. If racing unaffiliated, Athletes are required to hold Championship Membership at the minimum.  
• International Athletes must create an account with USRowing and opt into the complimentary International Membership. During this join or renewal flow, they will agree to USRowing’s waiver agreement. 
• Competitors of any USRowing hosted or sanctioned regattas are required to adhere to the USRowing Safe Sport Policy Manual for the duration of the event and to follow the Athlete Safety Procedures for USRowing Event Organizers.  Reporting misconduct is vital to protecting athletes and preventing further incidents. Sexual Misconduct must be reported to the U.S. Center for SafeSport. To report other forms of misconduct, including violations of the Athlete Abuse Prevention Policies, refer to the USRowing Safe Sport Reporting Procedures. 

Not in 2025. Regatta Directors will only be responsible for ensuring participants adhere to the requirements that have already existed, including membership, waiver, SafeSport status, and Certificates of Insurance (COIs) for programs that USRowing does not insure. USRowing will communicate this across our community generally and when programs register for regattas. 

 Throughout 2025, USRowing will work directly with organizational members to drive alignment with coaching standards as 1) they are more directly applicable to day-to-day safeguarding and athlete experience and 2) our goal is to reduce, not increase, active compliance work for regattas and/or regatta directors. 

  Our ongoing investments in the regatta registration process will move all sanctioned regattas closer to compliance with existing standards before teams show up on-site, as demonstrated by the progress at our hosted events over the past several years. 

Yes. Only certified coaches will be able to: 

• access restricted athlete-only areas at  a sanctioned regatta. This assumes the regatta has an athlete only area  and that it monitors compliance and access using RegattaCentral. This may include docks and fenced or otherwise designated athlete-only spaces 
• be assigned coach role on the team’s rosters within the member portal 

By the end of February 2025, all member coaches and programs will be able to view coach certification status in RegattaCentral. Programs will have access to Organization Dashboards whereas coaches will be able to see their status on their member profile. Sanctioned regattas will not have such visibility in 2025, as our goal is to avoid sanctioned regattas being the enforcement point for coach certification. 

This is not applicable for 2025 given sanctioned regattas will not be an enforcement point for coach compliance.  
 

Member organizations in good standing are considered certified. If they are not a registered member organization, they cannot register or race in a sanctioned regatta. If a coach is not certified, they are not recognized as having a coach role. However, they may participate as an athlete assuming they are a USRowing member in good standing.

Coaches that are not certified are not recognized coaches. If there are areas restricted to athletes and coaches, an uncertified coach should not be provided with credentials for accessing restricted areas. Certified coaches and athletes with memberships in good standing are not impacted and may race. See above note for grace period. 
 

No, USRowing will partner with member organizations and individual coaches on compliance. Regattas will not be responsible for status determination or enforcement. 

A non-member organization interested in attending a limited amount of sanctioned events can purchase a Regatta Pass to meet the requirement for organizational membership. This organization would still be required to also meet the requirement for individual membership. A Regatta Pass includes insurance for the event only and would be secondary coverage to any existent coverage a non-member organization already carries. 
 

A USRowing organizational member may register for a regatta without a certified coach. However, only certified coaches may be recognized as coaches and serve in the role of coach in line-ups and in restricted athlete-only areas at sanctioned regattas. 
 

We view 2025 as a transition year and we want to work with programs and their participants before and after to drive compliance. Regattas will not be responsible for status determination or enforcement and, therefore, will not prevent an uncertified coach or their team from competing. 

No. Only certified coaches will be recognized as coaches at sanctioned regattas.

International coaches are not subject to USRowing coach certification requirements. However, individual athletes are required to register for free with USRowing as international members and sign a USRowing waiver. 

You are, broadly speaking, covered based on our sanctioning of your event. The risk lies with attendees blaming USRowing and potentially you for allowing someone to compete who was somehow not insured or not compliant. That vicarious risk is currently USRowing’s burden, as we certify insurance we provide or the certificates of insurance for teams not covered by us. If you were not to sanction through us, that vicarious risk becomes yours. You would have to collect evidence of insurance from all attending teams.