This weekend, athletes will take to the Cooper River for the 42nd annual Bayada Regatta, the nation’s longest-running adaptive rowing competition.
2025 will mark the first time the race — billed as one of the largest adaptive rowing events in the world — will be held on the Cooper River after decades on the Schuylkill.
Adaptive rowing, also called para rowing, is a form of the sport available to athletes with a range of physical and intellectual disabilities.
As she practiced on the Schuylkill, Alexis Atwood powers her boat forward using only her arms and shoulders.
“I feel like a different version of myself. And feel like a clearer version of the new version of myself,” she said.
Atwood was 17 when a car accident left her with a spinal cord injury. What began as mobility exercises has grown into a vital part of her life.
“The water and just the sounds and the sights, it’s really beautiful to see everything,” she said.
Twice a week, Atwood trains with coach Richard Park at Philadelphia Adaptive Sports.
“What we do is rotate the athletes in—we do the race course, and more athletes hop in boats,” Park explained.
Among them are Leo, a military veteran living with multiple sclerosis, and Corey, who is visually impaired.
“Initially, I’m thinking, ‘row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream,'” Corey joked. “Everything moves and you have to be in tune with the technique. The oars move, the way you flip them inside and out.”
That technique will be put to the test Saturday at the Bayada Regatta.
“You’ve gotta be great if you’re going to be doing something like this,” Park said. “The athletes have the courage to do it, and the volunteers stick with them.”
For Atwood, the payoff is simple—competing, setting the pace with her rowing partner, and returning to shore smiling.
“I’m actually going to get cleaned up, put my cute outfit on, and then go to class,” she laughed.
The 2025 Bayada Regatta begins Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Camden County Boathouse.
Atwood will be there—balancing life as a rower and a graduate student pursuing her master’s degree in English and Literature at Villanova.
