Bled 2026 by the numbers

The field

Who took part

A total of 4,430 different people took part: 4,303 rowers and 266 coxswains (some combined both roles). Of the rowers, 2,333 were men, 1,750 were women, and 220 rowed exclusively in mixed boats. On average, each rower started 4.24 times, with a maximum of 18 starts for the busiest participant.

Sunday's mixed events (Mix A through Mix M) are included in this analysis: 25 events, 1,003 results.

Field pressure

Categories D, E and F draw the most boats

Age category D (50–54) has 1,018 boats across 17 events, closely followed by E and F — the life stage where most masters rowers are active. Category A (27–35, the youngest) is, with 531 boats, one of the smallest fields. These are boat counts; the chart above counts rowers.

Men versus women

Difference in field size and results between men and women

Men's fields are on average larger than women's. Among women, the time gap between the winner and the runner-up is larger than among men, while the spread across the rest of the field is similar for both groups.

By age category

Where the times were closest together

Spread across the whole field, not just the top 3 — so representative of what you'd encounter in a random heat. The combined oldest age categories are at the bottom: smaller fields mean fewer participants and therefore relatively more variation in level and fitness, which leads to a wider spread.

Five in a row

The MH 8+ came down to 0.11 seconds

Ranked by the gap: the time difference between the fastest boat in the event and the runner-up in that same heat — the most direct measure of a close finish for first place. Among the men, the MH 8+ (17 boats) was decided by 0.11 seconds; among the women, the WB 4+ (16 boats) by 0.85 seconds.

Gap = the time difference between the fastest boat in the event and the runner-up in that same heat — so genuinely the difference between the two boats racing each other. Spread = how close all the boats in that event were to each other, across all heats; the lower the percentage, the tighter the field. A small gap says something about the finish in one heat; a low spread says something about the whole field — the two don't have to coincide.

The MI 4x makes this top 5 with a gap of 0.56 seconds, but has the highest spread of the ten events here (9.28%): apart from the front, the rest of that field was spread far apart. The largest field among the men (MF 1x, 152 boats) and among the women (WD 2x, 136 boats) don't make the closest-events list: their gaps are 10.59 and 5.21 seconds respectively.

Five in a row · Mix

How close were the mixed events?

For some rowers, a mixed event isn't the exception but the main event — 220 participants at Bled rowed exclusively in mixed boats. Same yardstick as above: ranked by the gap between the fastest boat in the event and the runner-up in that same heat. Mixed fields are often far larger than a men's or women's field — the Mix F 2x below has 94 boats, against 17–32 boats for the closest events among men and women.

Method

The full crew per boat, not just the stroke seat

For this analysis, the complete crew of every boat was retrieved (RegattaCentral's LineupServlet) and merged into individual rowers, by name and club. Coxswains were kept separate: they can cox a boat of the other gender, which would skew their own classification. Win = winning your own heat — determined via the lane letter (e.g. L4 or K2).

The five tiers

Nearly 3 in 10 rowers land at least 1 win

Grouped by number of wins; anyone who never won is further grouped by their average position in the whole field (not just their own heat) across all their starts:

• 1 Back of the pack — on average in the rear third of the field
• 2 Mid-pack — on average in the middle third
• 3 Front of the pack, never won — on average in the front third, 0 wins
• 4 Wins occasionally — 1 or 2 wins
• 5 Wins consistently — more than 2 wins

Men and women split across the tiers in almost identical proportions — so the earlier-mentioned difference in field size and results doesn't translate into a different chance of winning.

Tier 5 · The leading pack

Do they win their heat — or are they also the fastest of everyone?

359 rowers (8.3%) won more than 2 times at Bled: on average 4.4x (men) and 4.1x (women). Winning your own heat isn't the same as being the fastest across all heats combined — when an event has multiple heats, there's only 1 truly fastest time.

“Almost always wins” applies to this group; “usually also the fastest of everyone” does not: roughly three in four wins are heat wins, not absolute top times.

Based on club affiliation (RegattaCentral doesn't show official nationality), the most clearly recognisable countries in this group are the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada. For a substantial part of the group, the country couldn't be reliably inferred from the club name.

Tier 4 · Wins occasionally

2 in 10 land 1 or 2 wins

886 rowers (20.6%) won 1 or 2 times at Bled — a substantial group between the leading pack and the rowers who never won.

Tier 3 · Front of the pack, never won

The smallest group: up front, but without a win

This group rows near the front on average (in the front third of the field), but never won a single heat. With 168 rowers (3.9%) this is by far the smallest tier: most rowers who consistently row up front do win at least one heat along the way and land in tier 4 or 5 — this group is the ones who just missed out. As an illustration, a few names who, with at least 3 starts, came closest:

Men: Richard Klajnscek (LBC), Albrecht Rosenfeld (RCN), Jan Bruijn (RVDM), Frank Verhulst (RVDM).
Women: Astrid Haastrup (KVIK), Nina Becker (WSAP), Lisanne Guell (RV Bad Ems), Katriene Schoenmakers (TOR).

Tier 1 & 2 · Mid-pack and back of the pack

Two-thirds of the field rows here

Together 67.2% of all rowers (1,630 back of the pack, 1,260 mid-pack) — deliberately no name list: without a win there's no meaningful “top”, only an arbitrary order around the tier boundary.

By age category and gender

Top 3 winners per category

Category = the rower's own age category, based on their registered age (not on which boat they rowed in most often). Races, wins and score, however, are the full record across all their starts — even if someone rowed once in a younger or older category. Ranked by a weighted score, in which the fastest time of the whole field counts for more than merely winning your own heat: score = wins + wins that were also the fastest time of the field. A heat win is therefore worth 1 point, with an extra point if that win was also the absolute fastest time. Categories without a winner are omitted. Country is inferred from club affiliation in the results (RegattaCentral doesn't show official nationality); for boats with rowers from multiple clubs this is an approximation, marked “unknown” where it couldn't be determined with enough confidence.