California Politician supports Taiwan's efforts to bring athletes with disabilities into Synchro
Taiwan will be featuring their first ever aquatics festival which will include synchronized swimming athletes with disabilities! This is an inaugural event for Taiwan and co-sponsored by our Synchronized Swimming Athletes with Disabilities group. (SS-AWD). We are an international advocacy group to help bring together swimmers of all abilities in various Countries. The event has been endorsed by many Taiwanese VIPs and Politicians, including California State Assemblyman Kansen Chu (District 25) who is from Taiwan. Kansen Chu has long been a supporter of people with disabilities and he got a chance to meet a championship disabled synchronized swimmer from his district at his recent April open house in Milpitas, California, USA.
One of the athletes with disabilities Kansen met was 14yr old Raquel Boales. She has been syncronized swimming for the past 6yrs. She is also a varsity speed swimmer with PASA at Stanford and is in the emerging athlete speed swim program for the United States Paralympics. She has been with the Santa Clara Aquamaids synchro team for the past 4 years and has earned over 30 Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for solo/team events and is also an International synchro Champion, winning a Gold medal for her solo in the 2014 Canadian Espoir Synchro National Championships, in the athletes with disabilities category. Raquel is one of our Synchro AWD group ambassador's promoting the sport and educating people about athletes with disabilities. She is also advocating to different Countries about having synchronized swimming for disabled kids as well as introducing synchro as a future Paralympic Sport.
Raquel and her AWD Coach Yuliya Roysental from the Walnut Creek Aquanuts (who will be starting a program to incorporate synchro athletes with disabilities), along with another disabled synchro athlete, Corinne Harris from the Cypress Synchro team in Monterey will be traveling to Taiwan for the June 21st Aquatics festival. In addition, two non disabled synchronized swimmers, Leilah Talukder, a Santa Clara Aquamaids Alumni and Narinay Bush (who are international champions) will be traveling to Taiwan for the June 21st Aquatics Festival. There will also be swimmers from Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Japan and Israel. They will perform solo and duet routines in Taiwan's first Open Synchro Exhibition, which will feature swimmers of all abilities. Raquel will also be performing a water skit with one of Synchro Taiwan's newest swimmer, a 10yr old Taiwanese male synchro swimmer who is blind. Synchro Taiwan has brought about 14 disabled swimmers into their program since October, with more wanting and dreaming of an opportunity for future Collegiate Synchro and/or Paralympics.
We are happy to know that VIPs and Politicians such as Kansen Chu support our cause and hope that others will 'jump in' to promote the future of kids as athletes with disabilties for synchronized swimming! Interested persons can contact us at: awdsynchro@gmail.com. Please visit our website at: www.synchroswimawd.org
