RIVERSPORT Foundation

We inspire excellence, enhance communities, and change lives through Olympic sports and outdoor urban adventures.

In the late 1990's, as the planned redevelopment of the North Canadian River near downtown Oklahoma City became a reality, the leaders of the Oklahoma Association of Rowing (OAR), which was then located on the western edge of town on Lake Overholser, could see the future of the river and watersports, and moved downtown. From humble beginnings, in 2005, Aubrey McClendon founded the Oklahoma City Boathouse Foundation (OKCBF), renamed RIVERSPORT Foundation. Just one year later, the Foundation built the first boathouse to host community rowing programs and world-class events.

Over the next decade, RIVERSPORT helped local universities start varsity rowing programs. During the same time, RIVERSPORT began offering new sports including kayaking, SUPing, and dragon boating, expanded programming to include options for the visually impaired, senior citizens, disabled veterans, first responders and children as young as eight years old, and earned a designation as a US Olympic and Paralympic Training Site.

The citizens of Oklahoma City voted a in favor of Maps 3, a sales-tax initiative for capital projects, which built the whitewater center in 2016 when even more residents and visitors were able to enjoy outdoor activities and watersports in the middle of downtown Oklahoma City.

Today, we work to remove barriers and provide access to all RIVERSPORT's outdoor activities and sports. We seek to eliminate the economic and racial disparities by connecting with youth and their families who would not normally have the opportunity to participate. We believe regular outdoor activity makes individuals and communities physically, mentally, environmentally, and economically healthier.