Celebrating Community: Recapping the 2024 Head of the Charles Regatta

The 2024 Head of the Charles brought the rowing community together on the river and off. The USRowing tent hosted multiple free events and experiences that allowed our community the space to congregate and talk about their different experiences and their shared love of rowing. The theme for the 2024 Head of the Charles Regatta USRowing experience was “Rowing Reflections: Honoring History, Embracing Tomorrow.” The weekend experience celebrated coaches, member organizations, athletes, and teams of the past, present, and future through events, conversations, photography, and awards.  

On Friday, USRowing hosted "Celebrating, Remembering, & Honoring: Rowing Through Cancer" lunch with the Survivor Rowing Network. Teams from across the U.S., Italy, and France came together to honor each other and the teammates they have lost to cancer. At the sold-out event, Holly Metcalf was honored for her creation of the WeCanRow organization, Olympian and Head of the Charles announcer, Nancy Storrs’ life was celebrated with pictures and comments from Carol Purcer, president of Rowing Canada Aviron and Olympian Carol Brown.  

The United We Row brunch kicked off the morning events on Saturday. Tara Hoffman from Recovery on Water, 2024 Paralympian Todd Vogt, and Conrad Palmer, a rower from Hobart, spoke to the crowd about the importance of diversity in our sport and USRowing’s ongoing efforts to make rowing more accessible through our grants and scholarships. 2023 USOPC Para Coach of the Year Ellen Minzner hosted her largest Path to Para event at the Head of the Charles. The 2024 Paralympic PR3 four with coxswain would be the highlight of the day, as they defeated the crew from Great Britain for the first time ever, won the Ellen Minzner Trophy, and set a course record. 

2024 Olympians Michelle Sechser and Kara Kohler won gold and silver in the Women’s Champ Single Sculls event. Sechser also raced on Sunday in a composite eight of lightweight women from around the world. 

The winners of the USRowing Athlete of the Year Awards received their awards on Saturday afternoon at the Head of the Charles awards stage. Sam Sullivan and Kate Kelly won the U23 Athlete of the Year Award. Tyler Murphy was present to receive his award for the U19 Male Athlete of the Year while Charlotte Jett was unable to attend. 

The Male Athlete of the Year, Michael Grady, was introduced by Michael Wall from our presenting partner, Foley & Lardner LLP. Meghan Musnicki was not able to accept her Carie Graves Female Athlete of the Year at the event. Gemma Wollenschlaeger joined her 2023 boat mate Todd Vogt as they received the Para Athlete of the Year Awards. Chris Bak and Annelise Hahl, reigning Beach Sprint World Champions, celebrated their win together. 

In addition to Athlete of the Year, Fred Schoch, the former Executive Director of Head of the Charles, received the 2023 Medal of Honor for his decades long work transforming the Head of the Charles into the largest rowing event in the world. 

The winners of the 2023 Board Awards were honored on Sunday morning. The Steady State Network, Unity Boat Club, Ellen Minzner and Marc Oria were in attendance to accept their awards and speak about their incredible work. Dorothy Lazor, Ron Chen and Bill Manning were not present to accept their awards. Nominations are currently being accepted for the 2024 Board Awards. 

Throughout the weekend, Team USA national team members autographed over 1,250 pictures, and event memorabilia. Some special fans even got a picture with Skylar Dahl’s Paralympic silver medal, Henry Hollingsworth’s Olympic bronze medal and Chris Bak’s World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals gold medal. Gutzy handed out over 3,500 pouches on Friday and Saturday and our safeguarding partners, #weridetogether gave away 500 socks in less than an hour on Sunday. 

Pictures from the weekend can be found here.