Government totally misrepresents alleged World Rowing and IOC Approval

The Queensland Government made an announcement last Thursday morning that purported that World Rowing had given technical approval to the Fitzroy River course in Rockhampton and that the IOC had given ‘confirmation that rowing would be in Rockhampton’. This was so far from the truth such as to be farcical and embarrassing.

The Announcement

The announcement stated:

• ‘The Rockhampton course …  has been endorsed by World Rowing... confirming Games rowing ... for the 2032 Games’
• ‘Independent assessment confirms the course can provide a safe, fair and consistent field of play ...’
• ‘a confirmation and endorsement (had come) ...from the International Federations (i.e. World Rowing and Paddle Worldwide) and the IOC that rowing would be in Rockhampton for the 2032 Games’

The Premier David Crisafulli then stated the Fitzroy River has been ‘signed sealed and delivered’ for 2032 and that ‘the international federations ...have confirmed rowing and canoeing will occur ... in Rockhampton’.  It was clearly represented throughout the announcement that the final approval had been obtained -which was far from the case.

The World Rowing Response

According to media reports, this announcement was a complete surprise to World Rowing and the IOC.  World Rowing then put out (in conjunction with Paddle Worldwide, Rowing Australia and Paddle Australia) a clarifying media release to address their concerns with the Government’s extremely premature announcement. Their release pointed out there were still ‘several additional elements ...requested (from the Government) to be confirmed. These include technical details and confirmation of service levels and facilities needed for Olympic and Paralympic competition’. No technical approval would be able to be provided until the details and information were provided.

The Reality

World Rowing had simply only stated that “based on the extensive analysis undertaken, we now know that the Fitzroy river is capable of providing fair competition conditions during the period of the Games’ under the conditions assessed. (Read:  in the perfect weather when some testing occurred) 

There are still many outstanding elements/ information that have been requested by World Rowing before a technical sign off of the course can be provided by World Rowing.  Only then can the venue assessment could move into the next stage of project validation.

There has been no ‘endorsement’ by World Rowing or the IOC that rowing would be in Rockhampton for the 2032 Games.

Once a technical approval is achieved from World Rowing and Paddle Worldwide, there are still many subsequent stages to achieve a finalised project validation report. This report must then be approved by the IOC and only then the venue is essentially ‘signed sealed and delivered’. These other stages will not involve World Rowing (as much as it is currently involved) and significantly then sits with the IOC.   

Some forthcoming issues

It would appear that the Government has been able to address some obvious key technical issues like length, width, depth etc. Going forward issues such as actual legacy to the sport, capacity (e.g accommodation/airport), athlete safety, environment and sustainability (e.g. likely destruction of 400 metres of magnificent riverbank vegetation) and event risk will still have to be addressed.

As to event risk, we point out that in the last 10 years there have been 6 years where the flow rate of the Fitzroy River (in the period after 1 April and up to the end of the Olympic/Paralympic period) were at such a rate that rowing course infrastructure (if deployed during that period) would have been destroyed. In 2016 and 2024, the course was destroyed with the 2024 incident occurring in August (which is in the Olympic & Paralympic Games window). In the other four years, the course would have been destroyed (if it had been deployed at the time of the flow event).  This destruction does not require a major flood - just a flow rate that occurs over a certain minimal level. Are the IOC prepared to accept such a high event risk?

Conclusion

As you’d expect, we are very disappointed by the Government’s blatant misrepresentation of World Rowing communications, clearly directed to force the hand of World Rowing and the IOC and change public opinion.  We still believe that the IOC/World Rowing will struggle to see Rockhampton as a viable venue for such a major event.