Capital Rowing Club

Capital Rowing Club rows on the Anacostia River in south-east Washington, DC. Founded in 1988, it is home to an active membership of more than 400 rowers drawn from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. It describes itself as a volunteer-directed, non-profit educational organisation, and it is a member of the Anacostia Community Boathouse Association.

The club's stated commitment is to bring rowing to the diverse community of the Anacostia River and the wider Washington area, with programmes for people of all ages, incomes and levels of physical ability.

Four programmes run alongside each other. The Capital Adaptive Rowing Program (CARP) works with rowers with a wide range of disabilities, from spinal cord injury and lower-limb amputation to degenerative diseases and visual impairment. Capital Juniors is a competitive programme for middle and high school students, with an emphasis on reaching young people in DC's wards 6, 7 and 8.

The sculling programme covers all skill levels, offering structured coached sessions for recreational and competitive scullers as well as arrangements for independent scullers. The sweep programme spans rowers who have just finished the club's novice and intermediate pathway through to those with college and masters racing behind them.

Capital crews race on the national circuit, including the Head of the Charles and the Head of the Schuylkill.

The club acknowledges that the Anacostia River takes its name from the Nacotchtank, or Nacostan, indigenous peoples.