Women smash indoor rowing world record in 24-hour team relay

We were all kind of dead at the end, but we were really excited. There were tears when we were finished.

It took them 24 hours and some very sore arms and legs, but a group of 10 Calgary women are now world-record indoor rowers.

Olivia Mcmurray and her team started using a rowing machine at the Calgary Rowing Club at 4 p.m. on Friday and didn’t stop until the clock struck 4 p.m. the next day. The group was attempting to set a new world record in the Concept2 women’s age group 20 to 29, 24hour continuous indoor rowing category for small teams.

The marathon effort paid off, with Mcmurray and her squad posting a 345.8-kilometre performance, smashing the previous record of 332.2 kms set earlier this year in Washington state.

“We were all kind of dead at the end, but we were really excited,” said Mcmurray. “There were tears when we were finished and now we’re all just zombies.”

The feat was not only one of stamina but also of logistics, with participants trading off five-minute shifts and sleeping on a schedule. The rules for the record dictate that all rowing must be done on a single machine, meaning that the team timed their trade-offs in a way that kept the machine moving continuously for the full 24 hours.

The world-record stunt was an effort to introduce some excitement into the rowing off-season, when athletes must train indoors on machines due to frigid temperatures and frozen lakes.

“Mostly we like to row outdoors but Calgary has, like, a six-month winter season,” Mcmurray said with a laugh.

Though she enjoyed co-ordinating and taking part in the record-breaking row, Mcmurray says there are no plans to try something similar anytime soon, with the team returning to its usual competitions shortly.

“Hopefully our record will stand for a while, because we did break it by quite a bit.”

Earlier this week, a group of 11 athletes from the University of Calgary women’s rowing team set a world record of their own, rowing a million metres on an indoor machine in just over 70 hours. One athlete, Courtney Kruschel, took part in both record-setting rows.

BRENDAN MILLER Sara Elkady of the Calgary Rowing Club gets encouragement from team members as she helps the club smash the Concept2 24-hour women’s indoor rowing world record. The small team, open weight title was broken at 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon after the group of women rowed a total distance of 345.8 kilometres, smashing the previous record of 332.2 kms.