1 January 2025

By Göran R Buckhorn

HTBS editor Göran R Buckhorn has the numbers for 2024.

In 2023, HTBS had 256,170 page views and 121,731 visitors, which were down from the record year 2022 with 285,860 page views and 132,089 visitors. How did we do in 2024? Gladly, we were up from 2023 and had 278,674 page views and 137,681 visitors in 2024.

Looking at other stats for 2024, HTBS published 296 posts. Most page views had “Home page/Archives”, followed by these 10 articles:

The Boys in the Boat: The Myth of the Underdog – Part I (Tom Daley, 22 February 2024) – 7,328
The Boys On The Set (Tim Koch, 30 January 2024) – 2,750
Vyacheslav Nikolayevich Ivanov 1938 – 2024 (Tim Koch, 5 August 2024) – 2,437
The Boys in the German Boat: Wikings at the 1936 Olympics – Part I (Julian Eyres, 24 January 2023) – 2,306
The Boys in the Boat: The Myth of the Underdog – Part III (Tom Daley, 24 February 2024) – 2,197
The Boys in the German Boat: Wikings at the 1936 Olympics – Part II (Julian Eyres, 25 January 2023) – 2,178
The Boys In The Boat: On The Start (Tim Koch, 12 May 2023) – 2,086
Who Built the Husky Clipper? (Lee Corbin, 15 December 2023) – 1,758
The Ancient Egyptian Rowing Stroke: Propelling the Boats of Gods and Men (Tim Koch, 2 March 2018) – 1,686
New Rowing Movie: “Heart of Champions” (Göran R Buckhorn, 10 October 2021) – 1,593

It’s interesting to see that out of the Ten Top articles, seven have a connection to “The Boys in the Boat”, the book or the movie.

Which countries did the readers come from in 2024? Here is a list of the Top Ten countries by page views:

United Kingdom – 109,693
USA – 98,653
Australia – 15,847
Germany – 8,608
Canada – 6,658
Ireland – 4,826
France – 4,468
The Netherlands – 3,763
New Zealand – 2,005
Italy – 1,826

Ah, let’s take five more:

Sweden – 1,736
Spain – 1,675
Switzerland – 1,372
Denmark – 1,198
Japan – 1,192

Looking at the stats for countries which have had people reading HTBS articles in 2024, besides the 15 countries mentioned above, 180 countries, regions and territories visited HTBS. However, it should be noted that 18 of the 180 “countries” only visited HTBS once, among them were Madagascar, French Polynesia, Bhutan, Sudan, Guyana, Cook Islands and Kyrgyzstan.

The last post of 2024 was the 4,949th post since we started in 2009, and since the start we have had a total of 3.500,409 views.

My warm thanks to the 2024 HTBS contributors and others, who one way or the other kept us going. They were: Marie Barge, Mark Blandford-Baker, Daniel Boyne, Anders Buckhorn, Ingrid Buckhorn, Lee Corbin, Tom Daley, Greg Denieffe, Chris Dodd, John Drew, Lebby Eyres, Robert Treharne Jones, Barney Karol, Malcolm Knight, Tim Koch, Philip Kuepper, Bill Lanouette, Peter Mallory, Bill Miller, the late Theo Mittet, Chris Morrell, Sandy Nairne, Michael Nicholson, William O’Chee, Rebecca Pskowski, Hélène Rémond, Min Stokes, Teresa Stokes, Ralf-Peter Stumme, Kate Suess, Nick Suess, Thomas Wigley, Ian Williams, Peter Williams and John Wylder.

While one of our regular writers, rowing historian Tom Weil, did not publish an article during 2024 due to battling cancer, his research on rowing and his encouraging emails which reached his friends here at HTBS were of great help to us. Sadly, Tom passed away on 1 September 2024. He will be sorely missed by us and the international rowing community.

Others who went to the Great Enclosure in the Sky, and whom we wrote about on HTBS, were Pauline Rayner, Clive Radley, Angus Robertson, Vyacheslav Nikolayevich Ivanov, Gösta Eriksson, George “Bert” Green and Penny Chuter.

Last but not least, a special thanks to Mrs. B. who has supported HTBS with her technical knowledge since the start in 2009. Without her, you would probably be looking at a blank screen right now.

It’s my sincere hope that you HTBS readers and contributors will have a healthy 2025 and continue to follow us during the new year. If you follow us on social media, please be aware that we no longer post links to articles on Twitter. We do use Instagram, Threads and Bluesky – see you there!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!