The first Keystone Sports Festival, in a park in Pasadena
The first Keystone Sports Festival, organized jointly by the International Youth Sports Development Federation and Team Play Events, took place at Brookside Park in Pasadena, California.
Seven sports were open all day — volleyball, basketball, soccer, table tennis, badminton, wushu and pilates — and children moved between them at whatever pace suited them. For many of the children we brought, it was the first time they had been coached by anybody, and the first time they had met an Olympic champion.
One parent put it better than we could: “We are deeply touched that our children could be seen, encouraged, and supported by IYSDF through this event.”
Four champions gave their day to it. Gao Jun, world table tennis champion, Olympic silver medalist and head coach of the U.S. national team. Wang Jingzhi, Asian Games team sabre gold medalist. Ding Hui, former Chinese national volleyball player and founder of Turbo Volleyball Club. Jessica Zhou, founder of Focus Pilates Studio.
We were joined by Li Hua, president of the U.S. Volleyball Association; Liu Wei, founder of Long Lake Entertainment; and Vickey Han, founder of U-Love Photography Studio.
Meihua Sportswear, the festival’s title sponsor, curated an Olympic heritage exhibition — “Silk Road of Sports: The Road to 2028” — with rare photographs and memorabilia from Chinese sport going back to the 1984 Los Angeles Games. The Meihua Youth Fashion Show and BK Dragon Wushu Academy’s original martial arts theatre piece ran on the centre stage, and the wushu performance, which mixed Chinese and Western staging, was the thing most people talked about afterwards.
Every child wrote their sporting dream on the Dream Wall, then carried the torch out to the centre lawn. It is a small piece of theatre and it works on them completely.
None of the day happens without volunteers. They were there from the early-morning setup through safety coordination and helping families find things, and they did not stop.
Our thanks to QICA, ONE’S WEAR Sports Gift, SPORTS IQ, POINT WEST Volleyball Club, INSIGHT SPORTS, BOHAI SPORTS, NEZHA CARNIVAL, SIX PACK Recruiting, Nezha Volleyball and Champion Golf Club.
“IYSDF is committed to helping young people discover their potential and build confidence through sports education. The Keystone Sports Festival marks an important step in our global youth sports initiative — we hope every child, regardless of background, can find their light through sports.”
The festival is not really a carnival. It is a working argument that a day of sport should be free, that a child should be able to try seven things without their family being charged for six of them, and that meeting someone who has been to the Olympics ought to be possible from a public park. We intend to keep making it.
Co-organized by Team Play Events. Supporting partners: BK Dragon Wushu Academy, Star Badminton Academy, Turbo Volleyball Club, Focus Pilates Studio and others.