Four South Philly teens will compete in the dragon boating world championships — if they can raise enough money
Making Team USA was only the beginning. They need to raise money in order to head to the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships held in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, in July.
A year ago, a group of South Philadelphia teens discovered dragon boat racing — a 2,000-year-old sport that features 20 paddlers sitting in rows of two, with one person steering in the rear and another up front. Now, four of those teens are headed to the sport’s world championships.
Their journey through the high-barrier-to-entry sport has been an underdog story from the beginning and is far from over. Making Team USA means the four teens are headed to the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships held in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, in July. But only if they can afford it.
» READ MORE: South Philly teens are trying out for Team USA in dragon boating, after a year of underdog success
Shwe Tun, 15, received the phone notification that she’d made the under-16 team at around 1 a.m. last Wednesday, while half-asleep.
“I seriously thought it was fake and I definitely couldn’t believe it, especially because I was just worrying about the things I did wrong or could’ve done better at tryouts the hour before,” she said.
Say Htoo, 17, who made the under-18 team with the rest of the teens, said his “heart sank in a good way” at the news while his mind went “on a parade.”
Joy Chen, 17, whose timed trials ranked 12th among more than 60 girls in her age bracket, and Maritza Texis, 16, who said she’d already given into the idea she “wasn’t going to make the team,” also got the messages.
The teens have been a mix of nerves and excitement since they traveled to California about two weeks ago. Few had left the Philadelphia region before tryouts or been on a plane; those who had didn’t remember the experience. Often, the teens were reminded of their underdog status because it would come up in casual conversation with adults. They were that team from Philly, the improbable athletes who had ascended in the Philly dragon boating scene, beating youth groups and adults.
The teens, however, didn’t need reminders, nor did they wallow in self-pity. They were aware that their road to the tryouts was made possible through their dedicated coach and the generosity of strangers. Their original team was made possible by a Jefferson Methodist Hospital grant, much of the gear and equipment needed to prepare were donated, an anonymous philanthropist paid for their flights, and they stayed at an Airbnb to save money.
They made sure to give the tryouts all they had.
“They really did a good job trying to always volunteer to be first in the boat, do everything they could to stand out,” said Adam Forbes, director of Discovery Pathways, a program that aims to get underserved youth outdoors and introduced the teens to dragon boat racing.
The first day was cold and rainy, said Forbes. The rest of the weekend consisted of workouts and other physical tests that involved pullups and medicine balls, with training on the boats peppered in. Forbes said the teens were exhausted by the end of the weekend and Tha Oo, 17, didn’t make the team.
Yet now a whole new set of challenges face the Philly teens, who have launched a verified GoFundMe to help them finance the trip to the world championships. They’ll need to cover their airfare and lodging, which is up to $3,000 per competitor.
The teens are already mulling over additional ways to fundraise while they ramp up their training. Chen, who likes to bake, might host a bake sale.
“I was and still am so excited and thankful for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she said.
Money, they hope, is not going to be the thing that stops them.