NORTHAMPTON — While Olympic rowers race at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium outside Paris, Hampshire County rowers are doing their best impression on the Connecticut River.

Northampton Community Rowing, a non-profit rowing club with a boathouse off of Damon Road on the Connecticut River, offers rowing opportunities for experienced and novice athletes alike. And its members are keeping a close eye on the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, where 42 American rowers and 12 boats will race for medals. Qualification has already begun, and the medal races run from Wednesday until Saturday.

“It’s a great way to see, even at the highest level, how it can apply to you,” said Kai Anderson-Flynn, who rows at Northampton High School and is part of the youth program at NCR.

There are 14 rowing events – seven men’s, seven women’s – at this year’s Olympics. Events are held in both scull (two oars per rower) and sweep (one oar per rower). There are one-person, two-person and four-person boats in scull and four-person and eight-person boats in sweep. 

Two athletes with connections to NCR are in this year’s Olympics and Paralympics. Aisyah Rafaee, who coached at NCR a few years ago while earning her master’s degree at Springfield College, is competing for Singapore in Olympic women’s single sculls. Saige Harper, an Easthampton native who rowed for NCR for five years, is competing in the Paralympics in the PR3 mixed double sculls.

Anderson-Flynn hopes the increased exposure from the Olympics will prompt more people to try out the sport.

“Rowing is a sport that a lot of people don’t know exists or don’t understand if they do know it exists,” Anderson-Flynn said. “So if people who watch most of the Olympics see it, they’ll know it more, they’ll understand it more, and maybe some of them will be interested in it.”

While Anderson started rowing in his teens, NCR president Sally Linowski and director at large Wendy Mardas both started midway through life. 

After trying the sport in college, Linowski got back into rowing in 2000 and hasn’t stopped since. Mardas got involved on the organizational side when her son joined the youth program and took it up in her 40s after he graduated. NCR offers learn-to-row classes for kids and adults, and novices can start racing in their first year.

“It’s really cool,” Mardas said. “Because at our age, you can join a sport and you can get good and start competing.”

NCR’s masters teams (experienced adults) practice for two hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and learn-to-row programs are offered on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Early mornings are usually best for rowing because of water conditions, heat and river traffic.

Youth rowers practice on weekday afternoons during the fall and spring seasons and learn-to-row programs are offered as well. Financial aid is available for Northampton residents in NCR’s youth programs.

“This is still a great time,” Linowksi said. “If people watch the Olympics and they’re like, ‘hey, I want to try this’ come on down.”

Both youth and masters teams compete through September and October, before weather conditions put a stop to the sport until March. On Sept. 15, NCR is planning a “Row for the River” fundraiser for the Connecticut River Conservancy, where they’ll row eight miles down the Connecticut River from the NCR boathouse to the Mount Holyoke boathouse. On Oct. 19-20, they’ll race in the Head of the Charles, the largest three-day regatta in the world, held on the Charles River in Boston.

Interested rowers can visit northamptoncommunityrowing.org or email Sally Linowski at president@hampcrew.com