By Martin Cross
It was an historic day for USRowing on Lucerne’s beautiful Rotsee course. For the first time ever, Team USA won the overall World Rowing Cup title. Their excellent performances in the Plovdiv and Lucerne World Rowing Cups saw them snatch the trophy ahead of Britain and The Netherlands.
Josy Verdonkschot, the McLane Family Chief High Performance Officer for USRowing, was delighted, “This is a really historic day for USRowing. I’m delighted for the team, support staff, and our sponsors, who have made this possible.’
The wins for the American crews never stopped coming. They opened early, when Mia Levy and Regina Salmons put in a devastating burst to take the women’s pairs title from an apparently dominant Czech pair.
It wasn’t gold in the men’s pair. But a silver for Madison Molitor and Pieter Quinton behind a superb Aussie combination showed just how far U.S. men’s small boat rowing has come on under Casey Galvanek’s stewardship.
That followed in the women’s double sculls by a superb performance by Sophia Vitas and Emily Kallfelz to track the Dutch world champions all the way to the finish to take a sensational silver medal. The fact that Evan Park and Isa Darvin took bronze ahead of Ireland was confirmation of the work USRowing’s high performance coach for sculling, Fiona Bourke, has been doing.
Maybe Jacob Plihal and Cedar Cunningham might have been a touch disappointed with their bronze medal in the double sculls? But this was a great performance, especially coming in ahead of the classy Spanish and British combinations. There is more to come from this combination–whether they end up in a double or a quad for the world championships in August.
The stand out performance for the American team was that of the women’s four. OK, so they had three of the women on board who took a gold medal at last year’s world championships in Shanghai. Molly Bruggeman was the one change from China. But the combination of Knifton, Cohen, and Czajkowski has proved unstoppable. They beat a fabulous Aussie four by open water. Surely Verdonkschot has to select this crew for the world championships?
But one thing about the Dutchman is that he has continually experimented with different line-ups—both here in Lucerne and two weeks earlier in Plovdiv. His final crew selection will await more trials in a couple of weeks.
The medal run for Team USA dried up for the men’s four—fourth place behind one of the contenders for the crew of the regatta, Great Britain, was no disgrace though.
There were more medals to come from the exhausted U.S. women though. Doubling up from the two pairs and four, the eight started—understandably—slowly, but scythed through the field in the last quarter (how did they do that?) to take bronze behind Britain and Australia.
There was a gold for the mixed double of Cedar Cunningham and Sophia Vitas. It was meant to be a bit of fun for the U.S. team scullers. But only Cunningham had the energy left to put a smile on his face after they crossed the line ahead of Germany.
And to wrap it all up, Sam Melvin, the former lightweight with a cap in the colors of New York Athletic Club, took a sensational bronze in the men’s single sculls. Melvin did not have the power to compete with the likes of Simon van Dorp or Olli Zeidler in the first 500 meters. But the 6-foot-tall sculler sculled an amazing middle ‘k’.
As the former Husky van Dorp faded, at one point it looked as though Melvin might take second place ahead of the Olympic silver medallist Zalaty. But bronze capped a fantastic fortnight for the 29-year-old.
Afterwards Melvin admitted that he had no idea how far he was behind after 500 meters, but said, “I was really pleased with my performance.”
The Netherlands beat a slow-starting Britain in the men’s eights. But maybe the performance of the day came from the diminutive Belgians who, sculling beautifully, beat Serbia in the double sculls to the gold medal. If you get the chance to watch the replay on Overnght, look at the size of them on the medal podium.
This was a sizzling hot Lucerne World Cup and Team USA showed that at this stage in 2026, they do really lead the world.
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