World Rowing Championships have been held since 1962, first every four years and since 1974 annually. Due to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic, the World Rowing Federation cancelled all international events for 2020 on 9 April 2020, some time after the 2020 Summer Olympics and Summer Paralympics had been postponed by one year. This included the 2020 World Rowing Championships regatta scheduled for Bled in Slovenia. On 11 July 2021, the World Rowing Federation announced that it had accepted the request by the Shanghai Organising Committee to also cancel the October 2021 World Rowing Championships that were to be held in Shanghai, China. On 14 July, after having received feedback from member organisations about the importance of international competitions, the World Rowing Federation confirmed that the cancellation of the 2021 championships in unavoidable.