USRowing blocks veterans’ organization from world row competition

U.S. Veterans’ Rowing & Kayaking (USVRK) Foundation, a 501c3 charitable foundation created solely to rehabilitate injured and disabled veterans, today announced it would sever all ties with US Rowing, the nonprofit membership organization recognized by the United States Olympic Committee as the national governing body for the sport of rowing.

USRowing selects, trains and manages the teams that represent the United States in international competition including the world championships, Pan American Games and Olympics.

According to the board of directors for USVRK, USRowing acted improperly by blocking access to the inaugural 2017 World Indoor Rowing Championships in Virginia by requiring USVRK buy insurance from USRowing.

“That would have required us to be members of USRowing, a clear conflict of interest,” said USVRK Chief Executive Officer Paul-Stephen Varszegi. “Although several attempts were made through the hosting club organization, USRowing refused to cooperate and denied us access to the international championship competition which drew thousands of competitors.”

According to Varszegi, USVRK instead took two of its blind veteran member athletes to Boston for another international indoor rowing championship called CRASH B's where USVRK could use its own insurance coverage.

One of the USVRK athletes took first place in the 1000-meter adaptive category winning a gold medal and Hammer Award.

“We find that USRowing is running a monopoly solely to benefit itself,” said Varszegi. “It’s nearly impossible for non-member organizations to compete at national and local regattas or get direct access to either Olympics or Paralympics unless they go through USRowing.”

Varszegi said that USRowing is also unethical because it falsely claimed to have created and managed programs for injured and disabled veterans - and that the organization used such programs to solicit over $350,000 from Washington, D.C. under the VA Adaptive Sports Grant.

“USRowing attempted to profit from our foundation through unauthorized use of a USVRK photo for fundraising on social media during Giving Tuesday,” said Varszegi. “The campaign ran for a full month seeking donations usually matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Facebook or PayPal.”

According to Varszegi, USRowing never sought permission to use the group photo or offered to share proceeds with U.S. Veterans’ Rowing & Kayaking.

“USVRK Foundation team members were outraged when they discovered their photos were used to profit our civilian competitor,” said Varszegi.

Varszegi said USRowing has made repeated attempts to misuse the USVRK brand on the USRowing website to promote a nonexistent link with its small Freedom Rows campaign.

“Freedom Rows is managed by USRowing staff member named Debbie Arenberg who seems to have a cozy relationship with the VA Adaptive Sports Grant provider in Washington,” said Varszegi. "On behalf of our foundation, we are determined to outperform these entities with quality service for our program veterans who number over fifteen times the Freedom Rows members.”

Varszegi cites the most recent accomplishment for USVRK in setting a historic individual and group of world and American indoor rowing records with 17-senior athletes ranging in ages of 80-101 on Long Island on November 3, 2018 and taking 3-Gold and 1-Bronze medals for four program athletes at the 2019 World Indoor Rowing Championships, CRASH B Sprints held on Sunday, February 17th in Boston.

The youngest adaptive athlete (at age 30) also set another indoor World Adaptive Indoor Rowing Record after he won Gold and the Hammer award.

“We are in the process of approaching Vice President Mike Pence and his administration for assistance in forming our own governing body and not be subject to the oversight of USRowing’s leadership,” said Varszegi.

In the meantime, USVRK Foundation board members plan to hold off from introducing athlete members to on-water rowing until achieving recognition as an independent governing body for nationwide military rowing and kayaking.

“Our civilian competitors made up of USRowing and USA Canoe/Kayak can stick to governing the civilian market, while USVRK Foundation will govern the military portion,” said Varszegi. As for our foundation, we have no intention of ever working with USRowing for how it has treated our military members and the harm caused with community partners and relationships we enjoyed.”

For more information, visit http://www.veteransrowing.org