History
Rowing has been practiced competitively and recreationally in Ontario for
over 150 years. The increasing urbanization and prosperity of Upper Canada
in the mid-nineteenth century, combined with the advent of the press and the
telegraph, created a class of men who were at leisure to practice rowing and to
gamble on the outcomes of races between professional scullers.
Clubs began to be formed in Ottawa, Toronto, Brockville and other centres,
largely for the members of the business classes in order to engage in healthy
amateur sport and to further develop social bonds. At the same time, sculler Ned
Hanlan of Toronto captured the national imagination by claiming the world rowing
championship in 1880, thus becoming Canadas first world champion of anything.
By the turn of the 20th century, rowing in Ontario had expanded sufficiently
to allow for the development of major inter-club regattas such as the Dominion
Day Regatta in Toronto and the Canadian Henley Regatta in St. Catharines (later
to receive Royal designation). Through the first half of the 1900s, Ontario
rowers took the lead in representing Canada internationally at the Olympic
Games, an indication of the Provinces primacy in Canadian rowing.
Following the Second World War, Ontario clubs started to organize themselves
more formally with the creation of the rowing associations in the Eastern,
Central and North Western regions of the province. With increasing government
interest and involvement in sport in the 1960s came the inception of, in 1969,
an Ontario Rowing Championship and, in 1970, the formation of the Ontario Rowing
Association. This coincided with the hosting in St. Catharines of the World
Rowing Championships that year.
At its inception, the Ontario Rowing Association (whose trade name became
ROWONTARIO in 2001) had nine member clubs and some 500 active rowers. The
intervening three decades have seen the steady increase in the number of member
clubs (more than one per year on average), the addition of womens rowing, and a
broadening of the sports reach beyond competition to include recreational,
adaptive and touring rowing.
Today there are over 6000 active rowers in Ontario.
over 150 years. The increasing urbanization and prosperity of Upper Canada
in the mid-nineteenth century, combined with the advent of the press and the
telegraph, created a class of men who were at leisure to practice rowing and to
gamble on the outcomes of races between professional scullers.
Clubs began to be formed in Ottawa, Toronto, Brockville and other centres,
largely for the members of the business classes in order to engage in healthy
amateur sport and to further develop social bonds. At the same time, sculler Ned
Hanlan of Toronto captured the national imagination by claiming the world rowing
championship in 1880, thus becoming Canadas first world champion of anything.
By the turn of the 20th century, rowing in Ontario had expanded sufficiently
to allow for the development of major inter-club regattas such as the Dominion
Day Regatta in Toronto and the Canadian Henley Regatta in St. Catharines (later
to receive Royal designation). Through the first half of the 1900s, Ontario
rowers took the lead in representing Canada internationally at the Olympic
Games, an indication of the Provinces primacy in Canadian rowing.
Following the Second World War, Ontario clubs started to organize themselves
more formally with the creation of the rowing associations in the Eastern,
Central and North Western regions of the province. With increasing government
interest and involvement in sport in the 1960s came the inception of, in 1969,
an Ontario Rowing Championship and, in 1970, the formation of the Ontario Rowing
Association. This coincided with the hosting in St. Catharines of the World
Rowing Championships that year.
At its inception, the Ontario Rowing Association (whose trade name became
ROWONTARIO in 2001) had nine member clubs and some 500 active rowers. The
intervening three decades have seen the steady increase in the number of member
clubs (more than one per year on average), the addition of womens rowing, and a
broadening of the sports reach beyond competition to include recreational,
adaptive and touring rowing.
Today there are over 6000 active rowers in Ontario.
