Hello! If you’re reading this, I am asking for support, monetary otherwise moral for my last ever cycle racing as a member of the 24U National Team for USA Dragonboat. It has given me everything.

As you may or may not know, paddling is an unforgiving sport financially. We do not receive the same support other better-funded disciplines do. Every single one of the 10,665.1 miles I've paddled in the past 5 years was time spent away from my academics and my career, and I am asking for support from this community. Any donation here or at @rdszhao on Venmo would be greatly appreciated.

All the usual niceties aside, I wanted to offer some words that tell my story, thank my amazing community, and reflect on why we travel thousands of miles and spend thousands of dollars to race boats.

This is my dragonboat blade. It's the first paddle I've ever owned.

I bought it on sale in 2019 from a site that doesn't exist anymore. I wanted to make it my own, so I stripped the branding and applied a koi fish car decal I found on eBay. After a couple rounds of spraycan polyurethane for waterproofing and being hung to dry out the windows of the student dorms of UC Riverside, it became what it still is today.

It secured my spot on my first 24U national team roster in 2021.

It was also the blade I first used on an OC1.

It came with me to Florida in 2022 the first time I raced CCWC with Southbreeze.

It stayed by my side as I coached UC San Diego Dragonboat and helped rebuild the team post-pandemic from 2021 through 2023.

And most recently, it flew across the world to Thailand for my 2023 24U campaign.

It will travel with me this coming July to Germany, and hopefully to many more races to come. I could spill all kinds of ink about where this sport has taken me, but I think the shaft tells all.

Racing for the 24U program this final time is my offering not just to the United States, but to the house that raised me. The people I want to thank and gush over could fill these pages, and I dedicate my race in Germany particularly to them. I credit a large foundation of the health of my relationship with sport to having had my earliest and most influential role models be incredibly brilliant and empathetic people. People who taught me not just how to paddle but how to be a good human being. I hold that sacred.

If you kindly choose to donate to my campaign, I can’t promise medals, but I can promise to always fight for this sport and our community. To continue the work. And if you aren't currently able to support my own campaign, I ask that you, soon or in later years, support someone else's.