British Rowing to Co-Host Its First World Rowing Indoor Championships

World Rowing has announced that the 2026 World Rowing Indoor Championships will be held alongside the 2026 British Rowing Indoor Championships (BRIC) on December 5—6, 2026, at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, Great Britain.

Presented by Concept2, the event will feature the traditional 2000m, 500m, and relay race distances, with competitors of all ages invited to participate. Adaptive athletes will be included through dedicated IAR (Indoor Adaptive Rowing) categories competing on the same distances.

The announcement follows two editions of the World Rowing Virtual Indoor Championships, which were held in February 2025 and 2026. While the format for the BRIC is confirmed every year, the Birmingham event will complement it by bringing competitors from around the world together on one competition floor.

Paris in 2020 was the last World Rowing Indoor Championships to be held entirely in person, although there were also hybrid editions in Toronto in 2023 and Prague in 2024. World Rowing is also bidding to get indoor rowing included in future Olympic Esports Games.

Future Ambitions

From 2026 onwards, World Rowing is aiming to hold two Indoor Rowing World Championships a year: a fully virtual championship in the first quarter of the year, and a fully in-person championship in the fourth quarter.

The December 2026 event will be co-hosted by British Rowing, marking the national governing body’s first time hosting an international indoor rowing championship. However, the British Rowing Indoor Championships have been running since 2015.

“We are thrilled to see the World Rowing Indoor Championships returning to in-person,” said World Rowing Executive Director Vincent Gaillard. “The spirit of indoor rowing thrives on atmosphere, camaraderie and shared experience, and the British Rowing Indoor Championships provide the ideal platform to bring that energy back in 2026.”

“We are incredibly excited to be welcoming the World Rowing Indoor Championships to BRIC 2026,” said British Rowing CEO Tom Solesbury. “The British Rowing Indoor Championships has gone from strength to strength, taking place over two days for the last few years with Super Sprint Sunday growing bigger and better each year.

“This latest step, where we will be working alongside World Rowing, gives us even more chances to share the power and excitement of indoor rowing with the UK and beyond. BRIC has always attracted international competitors; The NEC competitors can literally walk from the runway to the race floor, and we can’t wait to see who will be joining us in Birmingham in December.”

Alongside indoor/connected rowing, World Rowing also sets the rules and regulations for classic rowing, coastal rowing and para-rowing among different forms.

Further details regarding registration and event programming are set to be announced at a later date.