Recap: Head of the Rideau 2022

Last Sunday, our annual Head of the Rideau regatta returned after a 2 year hiatus due to pandemic restrictions! We want to give a huge thanks to the volunteers, friends, family, coaches, and of course the athletes from ORC and various other clubs and teams for participating and making this regatta possible! It takes a lot of hard work to pull this off, but we are super happy with the result! 

We want to give a special thanks to Julia Fournier for spearheading the event planning, and Maureen McEvoy for onboarding the many volunteers who made it possible. Of course, it was a team effort and there were tons of people involved, so huge thanks to everyone who worked on this event! We can’t wait to be back at it again next year for another successful Head of the Rideau! Check below for our ORC placings! You can also find the results here!

1st. Women's ltwt 1x

1st. Women's Masters 1x (21 to 41)

1st. Women's Masters 1x (50-59)

1st. Men's Rec 2x

1st. Women's Masters 8+

1st. Men's Masters 8+

1st. Women's Jr. 8+

1st. Men's Jr. 8+

1st. Men's Jr. 1x (U17)

1st. Women's Masters 4+

1st. Men's Masters 4+

1st. Men's Masters 1x (60+)

1st. Mixed Rec 8+

2nd. Women's rec 2x

2nd. Women's Masters 8+

2nd. Women's Masters 4x

2nd. Women's Jr. 8+

2nd. Men's Jr. 4x+

2nd. Men's 4x

2nd. Women's 2x

2nd. Men's 2x

2nd. Men's Masters 1x (50-59)

2nd. Mens Masters 8+

2nd. Women's Rec 1x

2nd. Mixed Rec 8+

2nd. Mixed Rec 2x

2nd. Mixed Open 2x

3rd. Women's Rec 2x

3rd. Women's Jr. 8+

3rd. Women's 1x

3rd. Men's 1x

Once again, thanks to everyone who participated, volunteered, and made the whole event possible as a whole!

The Queen’s Jubilee - Head of the Rideau

In 1977, Queen Elizabeth II, came to Canada for six days during her Silver Jubilee year. We are excited to remember this moment in Canadian history because she took part in our very own Head of the Rideau Regatta! She was involved in giving out medals and prizes to the participating athletes, and of course bearing witness to the tight competition as expected of the Head of Rideau. 

Additionally, we hosted a special race to celebrate her visit, called “The Queen’s Dash,” which was a 500 meter race, meant to use all that the athletes could conjure up in order to hit top speeds. This was the first, and only Queen’s Dash. 

The 1977 Head of the Rideau Regatta also welcomed many high profile Canadians at the time to watch, including former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, Director of Sport Canada Roger Jackson, and more! You can read the full whole story on Row Ontario’s website below!

*Account is brought to you by Richard Macfarland, ORC and the CBC. Picture is owned by Richard Macfarland.

Ontario Trillium Grants - OTF Recognition Event

We recently received two Ontario Trillium Grants! The Resiliency Grant for $149 000 (to winterize the main boathouse), and the Operational Grant $39 000 (day to day expenses). These were Covid grants to help clubs to recover from revenue loss, and we are excited to utilize this to support our future developments to the Boathouse and more!

During our recognition event for these grants, Mathieu Fleury, Ottawa City Councillor, Rideau-Vanier Lucile Collard, MPP Ottawa-Vanier, and Peter Thompson, President, Ottawa Rowing Club gave a short speech.Click below to read the full statement!

Athlete Health and Wellbeing Resources

The health and wellbeing of athletes on and off the water will always be a high priority at ORC. We now have health and wellbeing resources located on our website. We have included topics such as nutrition, mental health, hydration and lightweight specific resources, with more to come in the future!

If there are any other topics related to athlete health and wellbeing you would like to see added to the athlete resources, or have any questions related to the content, please send an email to our Athlete Representative, Meghan Jolley at athlete.representative@ottawarowingclub.com.

We would like to highlight one of our lightweight specific resources, “The Drive - Episode 2 - Lightweight Nutrition,” brought to you by Rowing Australia, which delves into how important a good diet and nutritional plan is to lightweight rowing especially in order to be ready for the next race! You can watch the video below.

ORC and Ravens Alumnus Matthew Fournier Inducted into the Ravens Hall of Fame

One of Carleton University's most decorated athletes, Matthew Fournier, was inducted into the Ravens Hall of Fame at Carleton University on September 22nd. The Ravens Hall of Fame honours former athletes and builders who have greatly contributed to the Carleton community and to their sport. This honour is particularly important to the rowing community at Carleton and beyond as Matthew will be the first rower to earn a spot in the Hall of Fame. 

While rowing for Carleton and ORC, Matthew landed in the top 3 positions at least 37 times with 18 of those being gold medals. He competed at the local, provincial, national and international level at various points throughout his rowing career. A few notable career highlights include a gold and silver at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, many gold medals at the Royal Canadian Henley Regattas, silver at the 2014 Canadian National Rowing Championships, bronze at the 2014 Head of the Charles, gold medals at multiple Ontario and Canadian University Rowing Championships and 2014 OUA Male Rower of the Year.

Read more using the button below!