Victorina Piccio

"I started dragon boat when I was 27. I am now almost 45, and I even met my husband through the sport. Naturally, during our wedding, it was a paddler’s happy hour!

In 2005, 13 crazy Houstonians had a dream of starting the first year-round dragon boat team in Texas. We called ourselves ‘Houston Heat.’ There was a big learning curve, but we did it! Now, there are many competitive year-round dragon boat teams in Texas. In 2013, my husband and I coaches and helped build the first Filipino competitive year-round team in Houston called the ‘FYP Island Warriors.’ Now, both teams have had paddlers be part of the national team. So proud of both teams.

Unfortunately, my husband and I left the sport 2017-2018 to travel. We visited all 60 national parks and finished seeing all 50 states. When we finished, we moved to LA and paddled with LA Thunder Dragons, a team my husband put up in 2002. In 2019, we were asked to coach. How could we say no to such a great group of people?

My favorite memory was at the 2016 ICF Worlds in Moscow. The US hadn’t won any medals and it was 9/11. Our boat had a shot for one. Before the final and before loading the boat, I stood at the edge of the dock, looked at the race course, and silently prayed and said in my heart ‘this is for you, America.’  When the horn blew, 10 strong women paddled our hearts out. We didn’t know the results when we crossed the finish line; it was too close. Then we saw our coach running to us with 2 fingers up. We won silver! Thanks to the 10 strong souls who gave me my first world medal.”

[Victorina Piccio (Los Angeles, CA & Houston, TX, USA), coach of LA Thunder Dragons, paddler on ICF US national team, ex-coach for Island Warriors, founding member of Houston Heat, ex-paddler on Texas Outrigger Canoe Club.]

114