When the 2024 World Rowing Championships officially set sail in Niagara this weekend, they brought with them more than the thousands of athletes who came from around the world.

With the rowers, who will compete in the Senior, Under-23 and Under-19 competitions at the Royal Canadian Henley Rowing Course in Port Dalhousie, come several opportunities to highlight both the sport and the region, say Brock University experts.

Associate Professor of Sport Management Kyle Rich, who has researched rowing participation in Ontario, says the event is a chance to celebrate the Henley’s reputation as a world-class rowing centre and build on the existing popularity of rowing in the region.

“I think it’s exciting for Niagara because it has a huge rowing culture as well as a youth rowing culture that is not typical in most of the province,” Rich says. “In some regions, the average rower is a 38-year-old, whereas in Niagara, they’re as young as 21, so there’s a very different participation landscape.”

The Mega Worlds, as they’ve been dubbed, bring together three different championships, rather than contesting each category at a separate time.

Associate Professor of Sport Management Michele Donnelly says combining the events provides opportunities for athletes at different stages of their careers to learn from and interact with each other, while competing on the same course.

“In the Under-19 category you have, girls, particularly, who are just past the age when there is an extreme drop-out rate from sport and physical activity,” she says. “The Mega Worlds allows them to see and compete alongside senior women rowers who are continuing in the sport and to see the possibility of that for themselves.”

Rich says the event is the latest in a growing trend among smaller municipalities looking to bring the excitement of a major sporting event to their community, without having the capacity to host something on an Olympics-scale.

“There’s increasing criticism around ‘mega events’ because of the massive investments in public support that it takes to pull them off, and a lot of places are looking at alternative models,” he says. “They’re looking to these smaller, ‘second tier’ type events that are much easier to get and to manage.”

Rich, whose research has explored the social and cultural impacts of events such as the Canada Games in Niagara, says international prestige, national unity, increased physical activity/well-being and economic development are among the reasons that regions bid to host.

“Our populations are growing massively, so we need new infrastructure to service those populations, and events are one way that cities are looking to do that,” he says. “Maybe it’s upgrades to a facility or needing new bleachers, but an event can allow for the leveraging of sponsorships to then make the investments needed in the host community.”

In Niagara, some of those investments have included a new fibre optic line to enhance race results communications and boat storage racks on Henley Island.

Rich says there is also often talk of what’s known as a ‘trickle-down’ or ‘inspiration effect,’ where it is assumed that increased visibility will translate to increased participation in the sport.

“But when you look across the board, there’s not sustained evidence that hosting events does lead to more sport participation, and we don’t have good data on sport participation to really be able to make those calls,” he says.

Donnelly says pairing the championship event with “real action to make grassroots participation more accessible,” however, could offer opportunity to expand the sport.

“Rowing continues to be very white and upper and middle class because of the cost associated with it,” she says, “so there is a need to explore ways that we could use an event like the World Rowing Championships to make rowing more welcoming and inclusive.”

Donnelly says at their core, events like the Mega Worlds should ultimately serve to promote the enjoyment of the sport itself. Doing so, she adds, could position Canada to become a leader in making sport safer and more inclusive for all.

“In Canada, a significant amount of funding for national sport organizations is tied to international performance — that hunt for medals — which creates situations that allow coaches and athletes to engage in harmful behaviours,” she says. “When we’re so focused on high-performance sport, we often forget that people — and children, especially — want to have fun when they are participating; that should be at the core of everything.”