Rowing World Cup 2024: How to watch on the BBC, schedule & GB squads

Great Britain’s top rowers will take to the water for the first time this season at the Rowing World Cup in Italy and you can watch it live on the BBC.

In the first of the three regattas that make up the World Cup series, rowers will be hoping to stake a claim for Olympic selection before this summer’s Paris Games.

Great Britain will be looking to build on a successful 2023, where they topped the medal table at the European Championships, won the overall World Cup trophy and were second in the medal table at the World Championships.

Among the 50 British athletes selected to race between 12 and 14 April in Varese are four current world champion crews, as well as double Olympic champion Helen Glover.

There are also returns after lengthy injury absences for Tokyo 2020 Olympian Graeme Thomas and 2022 world champion Sam Redgrave, who joins Glover, Esme Booth and Rebecca Shorten in the women’s four.

Thomas, competing in the men’s quadruple sculls, will be racing for the first time in 18 months following multiple bouts of Covid and several back injuries.

“It’s amazing to be selected for this World Cup. It’s a big achievement and a lot of people have worked hard behind the scenes to help get me here,” he said.

Great Britain have got the key boats already qualified in nine of the 14 Olympic boat classes – so GB Rowing will now be working out which athletes will form those crews.

As well as the World Cup series, there will be a chance for rowers to stake their claim for Olympic selection at the European Rowing Championships in Szeged, Hungary from 25 to 28 April. Those championships will be available to watch on the BBC and will also feature the para-rowing crews.

“We had some fantastic results last year including qualifying 13 boats for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. Now, after a long winter of training and testing, this season is all about stepping on and building towards Paris,” British Rowing director of performance Louise Kingsley said.