New race without gender rules coming to 207-year-old rowing event in Newfoundland

The Studio Verso team races to victory in the women’s long course event at the Royal St. John's Regatta in St. John's, Aug. 4, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Bud Gaulton

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. -- A centuries-old rowing race in the heart of St. John’s, N.L., is introducing a new category this year that doesn’t separate athletes by gender.

The 207th running of the Royal St. John’s Regatta will include an “open category” that will sort rowers only by age, allowing athletes of any gender to form a team, officials announced Thursday. The new category will permit transgender and nonbinary athletes to compete, as well as teams of friends or co-workers of mixed genders, said course captain Keith White.

“This is a historic moment,” White said. “This allows people -- men, women, trans people, nonbinary people -- who, prior to today, had no home at the Royal St John’s Regatta. This is going to provide them with the opportunity to row.”

The Royal St. John’s Regatta is said to be the oldest organized sporting event in North America, and it bills itself as being “steeped in history.” The day of races takes place each year on Quidi Vidi Lake, which flows through a former fishing village and empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

White said the regatta’s 50-person organizing committee voted unanimously on Wednesday night in favour of an open category. The group had been considering such a race for some time when members of St. John’s Pride approached them last year with an idea.

“It was the nudge that we needed to bring it over the finish line,” he said.

Eddy St. Coeur with St. John’s Pride said the discussions were prompted by comments from a nonbinary athlete.

“Sports bring people together, and the open crew category is a meaningful step toward greater inclusion in one of our province’s most cherished traditions,” St. Coeur said in a press release Thursday.

The regatta has been criticized in the past for what some rowers said were outdated gender policies. For example, women’s teams rowed just half the 2.45-kilometre distance of the men’s races until 2022.

White said Thursday’s announcement builds on those changes.

“This is another step in the right direction toward making the Royal St. John’s Regatta more accessible to all,” he said.

The 207th Royal St. John’s Regatta will take place on July 30, if weather permits.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2025.