Oklahoma City’s BOATHOUSES Rowing is becoming a popular sport in Oklahoma with the addition of women’s rowing at OU and the new home of the USRowing High Performance Center. USRowing has partnered with the Oklahoma City Boathouse Foundation and Oklahoma City University to launch the USRowing National High Performance Center on the Oklahoma River. The National High Performance Center is the first of its kind for USRowing. The center focuses on training the next generation of world-class rowers with an emphasis on athletes under 23 years of age. Oklahoma City also will be developed as a national center for coaching education for USRowing.
Chesapeake Boathouse
The High Performance Center incorporates all aspects of elite athlete training with intensive coaching, sports nutrition, strength and cardiovascular conditioning, sports psychology and sports medicine, including sport-specific biometrics, injury prevention and rehabilitation. In addition to the Under-23 program, the High Performance Center will host senior and junior national team selection camps, elite training camps and training opportunities for international athletes. The OU Rowing team currently trains at the Exchange Boathouse located on the river west of Chesapeake.
The High Performance Center began operations in November 2009 at the Chesapeake Boathouse and is headquartered in the new Devon Boathouse, which opened in October 2010. High Performance Center programming will be incorporated throughout all of the new boathouses slated for construction on the Oklahoma River. The new OU boathouse, currently in the planning stages, will be built near the National Training Center and Sooner rowers will continue to train in facilities shared by the future national team athletes. The exposure to the best in the country will provide limitless opportunities for the OU rowers. The USRowing High Performance Center includes a year-round residency program for pre-elite male and female athletes. The program also works with the Oklahoma City business community to provide job and internship opportunities for athletes. The Under-23 program began athletes in residence in August 2009 with 40 on the roster, and has continued to add rowers.
Exchange Boathouse