The land Down Under is known for hosting any number of creatures great and small that can kill you. Rowers competing at the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games will face that challenge after their event was approved Thursday for the waters of the Fitzroy River which hosts more than 600 saltwater crocodiles.
That’s not all.
Lethal Australian box jellyfish have also been found found near the mouth and tidal saltwater sections of the central Queensland river’s waters in the past. Add bull sharks and deadly snakes amongst its potential lethal predators in the water and along the banks.
Not that any of those are concerns for the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
In six years’ time, the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics are set to stage rowing and canoe sprint events in this very stretch of water, the BBC reports, which has just passed a technical IOC-endorsed assessment and been endorsed as safe and fair for athletes.
Bull Sharks are common and naturally active in the Fitzroy River near Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia. (Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild via Getty)
Having reviewed the assessment, World Rowing president Jean-Christophe Rolland and Paddle Worldwide president Thomas Konietzko endorsed the waterway.
The ABC reports Rolland said it could provide a safe, fair and consistent field of play suitable for Olympic and Paralympic rowing and canoe sprint competitions.
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“Based on the extensive analysis undertaken, we now know that the Fitzroy River is capable of providing fair competition conditions during the period of the Games, consistent with the requirements of Olympic and Paralympic rowing,” he said.
Brisbane’s Olympic chief, Andrew Liveris said at the announcement that worrying about creatures below the water was “a bit Hollywoodish.”
“There are sharks in the ocean and we still do surfing,” Liveris told the Guardian.
In this photo provided by the Rockhampton Regional Council, rowers paddle on the middy Fitzroy River at Rockhampton, Australia, on July 24, 2025. (Rockhampton Regional Council via AP)
When previously asked about the plan, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Fitzroy was “a great river” to walk along, but wasn’t sure it was an entirely “sensible” proposition.
“But I’m not sure that having rowing there, although I’ve got to say, people might break world records,” he said in truly laconic Australian fashion, before adding:
“They’d want to go pretty quickly wouldn’t they?”
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