Our annual challenge, the Tour de Ski Challenge, takes place February 1–28 and features a different SkiErg event each week. This year, it coincides with the Winter Games in Beijing, so plan on participating while watching the best skiers in the world compete for gold! We offer ways to join in the excitement of the cross country skiing and biathlon events. Continue Reading ›
Concept2 was honored to have staff on the ground at the Tokyo Olympic Regatta. Oar technicians Matthias Zink from our German office and Bob Beeman from our US headquarters were there to assist with competitors' needs, whether for a last-minute tune up on equipment or for unexpected problems, like damage from travel or a collision on the course. Bob Beeman is familiar face to many of the athletes, as he's been supporting athletes at regattas all over the world for many years. Here he shares a little behind-the-scenes scoop! Continue Reading ›
The growing sport of coastal rowing adds splashes of excitement—literally—to traditional flat-water rowing. Using competitive self-bailing coastal boats, the sport is rowed on oceans and coastal waters where surf and tides test athlete speed on varying conditions. Concept2 sculls are custom-built and are suitable for coastal rowing; we can build what coastal rowers need. Continue Reading ›
For athlete Kouadio Franck N’Dri (who goes by the name Franck-Aimé), rowing is not just an Olympic dream, but a deeply personal goal: he rows in his late father’s memory as a way to connect to and remember the man who taught him the sport. Franck-Aimé realized at a young age that he wanted to do something significant in rowing. Representing the Ivory Coast at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will surely fulfill that goal. Continue Reading ›
When Pete and Dick Dreissigacker first started playing with oar designs in 1976, they were two rowers who were also engineers and they couldn’t resist the challenge of making a faster oar. Specifically, they wanted to improve their speed in the pair because they were racing together in the Olympic Trials leading up to the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Rowing races can be won or lost by fractions of a second so every little bit of speed is worth gathering. Continue Reading ›
Concept2 was saddened to learn of the tragic drowning of PR1 athlete Dzmitry Ryshkevich (Belarus) during a training session at the World Championships in Linz, Austria. Our condolences to his family, friends and teammates.
The World Rowing Championships in Linz, Austria, kicked off the Olympic and Paralympic qualification process for many crews with their sights on Tokyo 2020. 86% of all medal-winning boats at the 2019 World Rowing Championships rowed with Concept2 oars and sculls! Countries race to qualify in each boat class, qualifying the boats, not the athletes. This year's event attracted nearly 1200 competitors from 80 countries, including two outstanding "older" elite competitors of note: Continue Reading ›
Team USA Olympian Hannah Dressigacker illustrated this guide to biathlon in 2014 while she was competing in Sochi, Russia. Although European audiences for Biathlon events set viewership records, the sport is just starting to catch on in the United States, and Hannah's goal was to help her followers better understand the sport. Many of us here at Concept2 have tried biathlon, and have a great appreciation for the challenges it presents. Continue Reading ›
As the rivers and lakes begin to melt here in Vermont, we’re eager to start training on water—while many programs are already kicking off the regatta season! The San Diego Crew Classic declares “the rowing season starts here”. Year-round, there's great rowing to watch here in North America—coast to coast from San Diego to Boston. Here’s what we look forward to throughout the year. Continue Reading ›
Thomas Darling is the Director of Para Rowing for USRowing. His job is to identify and develop nine para athletes to race in the Paralympics. Tom is a three time Olympian: 1980 (boycott), 1984 (Silver Medal, Men’s 8+) and 1988 (5th, Men’s 4+). He graduated from Syracuse University in 1981 with a BA in Psychology and earned a MEd from Boston University 1991. In 2008 he started volunteering at Community Rowing in Newton, Massachusetts, with the Adaptive Rowing program and created the first Adaptive Indoor Rowing Championships (AIR-Cs) in 2009, and subsequently introduced para events at the CRASH-Bs. He was hired by USRowing as Director of Para Rowing in 2013. Continue Reading ›
Erik Bjornsen is a current US Ski Team member and two-time Olympian, having raced at both the Sochi (2014) and Pyeong Chang (2018) Olympics. We asked Erik about his summer training program, and how the SkiErg is included in the plan. Continue Reading ›
