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Please note: This introduction was part of the article about dragon boating in the USA, published in the DBWI-Magazine No. 3 – July 2008
The website link however has been updated in 2021.
The Philadelphia Dragon Boat Association, or PDBA (originally the Philadelphia Men’s Dragon Boat Racing Team) is essentially a local club crew team that practices and performs year after year at a World Championship level.We are working professionals with jobs and families living right here in the Delaware Valley. The team was established in 1983, has been the defending US Premier Men’s National Champion since 1995, and medaled in 5 out of the 6 World Championships since then including Gold in 1997 and 2004 and the Nations Cup in 2007. The team has outgrown just that single division and now includes men, women, and kids ranging from 11 years of age to 65. Quite a few of our members have been on the team for nearly 20 years. Once the Nationals are won, our rosters open up to other athletes from all over the country to form Team USA. The capstone of that growth was the recent World Championship last year, 2007.
Outstanding performances marked by three stunning come from behind victories for world championship gold medals are the legacy of the 2007 season. Members of PDBA formed the core of the United States Dragon Boat team that captured the Nations Cup at the 2007 International Dragon Boat Federation’s World Championship held in Sydney, Australia. The Nations Cup is the overall point trophy awarded to the top country. Team USA won Gold in 4 individual events, the Men’s 2000 meter, 1000 meter and 500 meter and the Mixed 500 meter on the way to the team title. The USA victory in the 500-meter Men’s race set a new World Record at 1 minute and 48.7 seconds. A silver medal in the Mixed 200 meter event and a pair of fourth place finishes by the USA women’s team helped secure the point trophy over Team China, a traditional powerhouse of Dragon Boat racing. Philadelphia and the PDBA were at the center of it all.
As previously mentioned – we are an amateur team, and the National and World Championships are almost never a “home game.” All the hard work and practice go for nothing if we can’t fly the team to the starting line at the next big race. For that reason, we started our own dragon boat race as a club fund raiser. We’re calling it the Independence Dragon Boat Regatta and it is held every June here in Philadelphia. The IDBR is run very similarly to other dragon boat races, but for this event each local team is coached by one of the PDBA’s veteran National and World championship paddlers. The proceeds of this year’s races will benefit the PDBA’s expenses to compete in the next World Championships in Poznan, Poland, as well as the rehabilitation of wounded military veterans. In the longer term the funds will be committed to expanding the availability of recreational and competitive dragon boat paddling to the entire city of Philadelphia.
More info can be found at http://www.phillydragonboat.com
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