Rowers compete in the 2024 US Rowing Youth National Championships at Nathan Benderson Park. Provided photo.

It’s official: Sarasota is the mecca of rowing in North America. From June 12-15, Nathan Benderson Park will host the 2025 US Rowing Youth National Championships, a congregation of thousands of the nation’s top youth rowers battling it out for glory. The regatta, which is expected to draw around 10,000 athletes, coaches and spectators, is celebrating its 30th anniversary and is returning to Sarasota for the eighth time.

“Most people don’t realize that this park has become the hotbed of rowing in our country,” says Rick Brown, director of operations and development at Sarasota Crew. “We just take if for granted that there’s this course by UTC and it has rowing, but the fact that these types of events come here year after year is a pretty big deal.”

Nathan Benderson Park is ideal for rowing, because of how the 400-acre lake is constructed. The water is shallow and perfectly flat, with a length of 2,000 meters, the traditional length of a championship regatta. Think of the lake as an aquatic dragstrip—it is made for racing.

Over 200 clubs—including Sarasota Crew, which is sending 87 athletes across 13 boats—will compete in the Youth National Championships. Throughout May, clubs from across the country competed in qualifying regattas, with the hope of being some of the distinct few to earn a berth in the National Championships. For the rowers, who will compete in Youth, U16, U17 and U19 age brackets, the Youth National Championships are as big as it gets. Success at Nathan Benderson can not only lead to glory, but future opportunities in the sport.

“There are a lot of college coaches that are going to be in town. There’s not as much an aspect of a coach watching to see if this one person is going to be great within an eight person boat, but these coaches are in town to see the results and have a lot of conversations with athletes,” says Brown. “The majority of the top high school talent will all be in one place at the same time, so it’s definitely appealing for collegiate programs to be here. It’s not the end-all, be-all in terms of recruiting, but certainly the more positive the results are, the more conversations with college coaches you’ll have.”

US Rowing Youth Nationals, June 12-15, Nathan Benderson Park, 5851 Nathan Benderson Circle, Sarasota, 34235

Rowers compete in the 2024 US Rowing Youth National Championships at Nathan Benderson Park. Provided photo.

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