“athletes have been unnecessarily killed and injured… due to lax standards and or enforcement of rules.” US Rowing, 2007 Safety Video
2021 was the deadliest year in modern US rowing history: four rowers drowned in three separate incidents. In 2022, three more rowers drowned in the United States. The recorded deaths in 2021 included a high school student who fell overboard during an epileptic seizure; two college students who capsized on cold water; and a an experienced masters rower. In September, 2022, two middle school students and a masters rower died in two separate accidents. None was reported to have been wearing a lifejacket or PFD that might have saved their life.
[PLEASE NOTE: THIS PAGE IS NOT CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED. MORE INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ON THE ROWING ACCIDENTS PAGE ON THIS SITE.]
Since the year 2000 more than a dozen rowers have drowned or been killed by motorboats in the US and Europe, in addition to rowers who apparently suffered heart attacks while rowing and coaches who drowned after falling overboard, and deaths that occurred in other parts of the world. Most of these accidents occurred on cold water. None of those who died was wearing a lifejacket or PFD.
The Accidents page of this website lists more than four dozen near-fatal accidents and twenty fatal rowing accidents that have occurred in the US and Europe since 1976. Several of those fatal accidents are highlighted here. Six occurred at major universities; Columbia University, Northwestern University, Oxford University, the University of New Hampshire, and Iowa State University. One involved a university rower who didn’t know how to swim. One was a high school student. One was a collegiate rower coaching novices. In August, 2019, a 33-year-old rower drowned at the World Rowing Championships. In May, 2022, two 14-year-old rowers drowned when overtaken by a squall in India.
Most of these deaths resulted from routine accidents with coaches and safety launches close by, Most were on water temperatures below 50f/10c, and all could — or most likely would — have been prevented by wearing a PFD.
Pushan Sadhukhan & Souradeep Chatterjee, 14, 21 May 2022
“We had only been taught to row,” one of the survivors of a tragic accident said after two of his classmates perished in a squall. “Had we known our boat would not sink, my friends could have survived by simply holding on to it,” Devanshh Chakraborty told The Telegraph Online. Only after his friends had drowned did he learn that his rowing shell had been designed to support the rowers in the event of such an accident.
Leo Lehner (15); drowned, 11 October 2021
Leo Lehner, age 15, drowned after apparently suffering an epileptic seizure while rowing with his high school team in Dayton, Ohio. According to the Dayton Daily News Leo’s father told police that Leo “had a long history of epilepsy and had seizures ‘during his most calm moments.’ ” He reportedly was not wearing a lifejacket.
Yaakov Ben-David (20) and Derek Nanni (19); drowned, 28 March 2021
Yaakov Ben-David and Derek Nanni were reportedly novice rowers with the Iowa State University Crew Club when they set out in an unaccompanied coxed four on Little Wall Lake in central Iowa. The crew cox has said that the weather lake was calm and winds low when they set out at 9:30 am, although there may have been forecasts of possible high winds coming later. Water temperatures were in the forties.The crew apparently capsized as the winds picked up and they tried to return the boathouse. The cox and two rowers made it to shore with the help of residents who launched kayaks to reach them. Ben-David and Nanni didn’t survive. Their bodies were recovered from the lake bottom later. Neither was wearing a lifejacket.
Dzmitry Ryshkevich (33); drowned, 21 August 2019
Dzmitry Ryshkevich drowned while training at the World Rowing Championships in Linz, Austria, in mid-afternoon on a clear day. Ryshkevich was a para-rower and it was reported that when his boat capsized he was able to release his safety belt, get out of his shoes, and cling to his boat while close-by safety launches came to his rescue. Tragically — and reminiscent of the Lake Victoria accident in which two rowers died — he slipped beneath the water within sight of his would-be rescuers and they were unable to locate him in the murky waters.
Mohammed Ramzan (age 20); drowned, 10 April 2017
Mohammed Ramzan was rowing with Northwestern University’s crew team on water temperatures in the forties when he was ejected by a crab, surfaced momentarily, and then drowned. Abrasions on his face suggested the oar had hit him in the head. His coach and another rower from his boat dove into the water after him, but were unable to see or find him.
In the official police inquiry that followed his death it became apparent that he had told some of his teammates that he didn’t know how to swim, but the coaches may have been unaware of this because no swim test was required or administered at Northwestern. As a novice freshman on crew team he might have been advised, if the subject was discussed, that a life-jacket was unnecessary because “rowing is very, very safe,” and they are uncomfortable, unnecessary, and chafe. Like the other members on the team, he wasn’t wearing one. But had he been wearing any one of the PFDs that USRowing has acknowledged are suitable for rowing, his head should have risen above the water within seconds of having been thrown in. Rescuers should have been able to see him immediately, and there is a reasonable possibility he would be with us today. Sadly, he never had that chance.
Farooq Sikander (age 15); drowned, 2 January 2005
Fifteen-year old Farooq Sikander drowned about one-meter from the shore of the Themes after having been allowed by a coach with the Reading Rowing Club to row a single for the first time while wearing jeans and no life-jacket. One report indicates he tried holding onto the bow of his boat and tow it to shore, but lost his grip in the 41f/5c water; was unable to scale the bank; fell back into the water and drowned.
He was reportedly a tennis player, weightlifter and proficient swimmer.
The coroner found that the coach — who was reportedly a “qualified coach with 20 years coaching experience” — had not been negligent; but he strongly criticized Britain’s Amateur Rowing Association “for failing to provide adequate safety rules and guidance to its affiliated members.”
John Steve Catilo (age 20); drowned, 15 June 2004
John Steve Catilo was an experienced rower and reportedly a strong swimmer who had come home from college to coach novices at the club he had rowed with in high school. While coaching young novices on their first day on the water, he apparently started his launch engine while it was in gear and was suddenly thrown into the river. Although not far from the young novices he was coaching and surrounded by other shells and coaching launches on the Potomac River, he was reported to have resurfaced only twice and was unable to reach any other boat before drowning.
His parents initiated a wrongful death suit against both the rowing club and USRowing for failure to require common safety practices such as the wearing of a lifejacket and use of a safety lanyard on the launch. According to their attorney, his parents “wanted to establish fundamental rules… and that these rules take place on a national level,” to prevent similar accidents in the future. This was apparently settled out of court on the condition that the safety measures that could have prevented their son’s death would be required in the future by USRowing.
USRowing wrote following his death: “because tragedy can strike at any time and under any circumstance, safety is paramount,” and they amended their safety guidelines to protect coaches from similar accidents. Rowers, however, remain unprotected in instances where coaches are unavailable at the time of the accident or unable to help for other reasons.
Leo Blockley (age 21); drowned, 29 December 2000
Leo Blockley drowned at the Oxford University winter training camp in Amposta, Spain on December 29th 2000, when his shell was swamped by two-foot waves approximately 50 meters from the boathouse. Leo disappeared as he tried to swim back.
A coroner’s inquest later found Oxford University conspired to cover up the circumstances of his death, including the fact that the coach had been drunk — “legless” — the night before the accident.
In response to his death his parents initiated a memorial campaign for racing shell manufacturers to include sufficient buoyancy in all boats to keep them afloat when swamped.
Although there had been discussions of such buoyancy standards prior to Leo’s death, another five years would pass before FISA supported the creation of the buoyancy standards that are now in effect.
Glenn Hayes (died 10 April 1983; age 19)
On Sunday, April 10th, 1983, eight racing shells accompanied by three coaching launches set out on the Oyster River in New Hampshire. Although the Oyster River feeds into the Atlantic Ocean and gale warnings had been issued by the Coast Guard earlier in the day, the boats set out under sunny and calm conditions. A fast-moving squall overtook them in the bay and several boats swamped. Glenn Hayes “was apparently overwhelmed by the cold water and the weight of heavy, wet clothes when he attempted to swim to land.” As a fellow rower on the boat noted, “It can be a very frightening experience. The cold of the water can be so startling, especially when you’re rowing hard, that it takes your breath away.”
The Harvard Crimson noted that the death of Hayes and hospitalization of eleven other rowers for hypothermia caused crew officials at many other colleges to review their safety programs after the accident. [credit: Robert M. Neer, Harvard Crimson, April 13, 1983]
Following the deaths of Stephen Abbey (d. 1976) and Glenn Hayes (d. 1983) discussions among college crew officials led to USRowing’s creation of a Safety Committee and the promulgation of safety guidelines. More than thirty years later, however, no minimum safety standards have been established. Rowers of all ages may still practice, train and compete without regard to the guidelines that have been established.
Stephen Abbey (died February 23, 1976)
On Monday, February 23rd, 1976, Columbia University Sophomore Stephen Abbey drowned when his eight was swamped by three large waves on New York City’s Harlem River. As reported in the Columbia Spectator the shell was “approximately twenty yards from the Riverdale shore… directly in front of the Marble Hill railway station, according to athletic department officials.” There was apparently no launch boat in its vicinity when it capsized, due to a frozen fuel line that had delated starting the launch engine. The team manager reported that it was normal for shells to leave the dock ahead of the launch with instructions to turn around at a predetermined point if the launch hadn’t caught up with them by the time they reached it.
As Stephen’s boat was turning around it swamped in the choppy, 35-degree water. A friend said he was a competent swimmer who had passed the required 75-yard swim test and made it to shore after other capsizings; but was unable to hold onto the boat or swim the 20 yards to safety in the 35 degree water. In defense of the team’s practices its manager reportedly said “This was definitely a freak accident. I’ve rowed in worse conditions and I think our safety precautions are more than adequate.” [credit: Columbia Spectator, Feb 26, 1976]
© 2021 RowSafeUSA.Org