2025 Wrap Up

Hello 22Dragons community, 

As the year draws to a close, the 22Dragons office would like to take some time to appreciate what a year it has been. For us, this was a year full of uncertainty with the looming threat of tariffs affecting our American and Canadian businesses and a few health scares. Through it all, the club acted as a bedrock, coming out of this summer stronger than ever! 

Here are a few highlights from this past year I’d like to share with you. 

• Completion of the Trop-Plein Rockfield 

• PanAmerican Club Crew Championships 

• National team representation 

• Canadian National Championships 

• Growth of the senior and premier program 

• Growth and success of the 24U-PS programs 

• Events and corporate events 

• 22Dragons leadership beyond the club 

• What’s next? 

Completion of the Trop-Plein Rockfield

After 15 years since the announcement of the project, the trop-plein Rockfield, a water retention basin for the Sud-Ouest and Lachine regions of Montréal, was finally put in operation this summer. This retention basin’s role is to collect the untreated sewer water during high rainfall periods until it can be treated at a later time. Until this year, whenever a high rainfall storm would occur, the excess untreated sewer water had to be expelled into the Lachine Canal, triggering an automatic 3-day closure of the canal. Before the operation of the basin, an overflow occurred an average of 6 times per year, in a 150-day opening period of the canal, 18 days of closure, representing 12% of the season. Now, the occurrence of overflows should be once per five years. This is great news for the club translating in no more cancelled practices and events for overflows! 

PanAmerican Club Crew Championship 

In early July, 22Dragons, along with H2O Playground, welcomed crews from across the Americas as the hosts of the PanAmerican Club Crew Championships. To our crews, this wasn’t much different from the Montreal Challenge with the exception of racing in age categories, but for the international teams, they got to see the scale and quality or racing we’re lucky to have in Montreal and good Canadian hospitality. 

22Dragons had by far the biggest delegation at the event, sending 33 sport crews and 19 22Dragons-affiliated community crews to the championships. 

The 22Dragons post-secondary teams were crucial to the success of the event thanks to them providing the volunteers necessary to run this event smoothly. Thank you to all the volunteers and the coordinators for their help through the harsh heat and sun; this wouldn’t have been possible without you all. 

Results for this event can be found via this link. 

National Team Representation 

This year was also marked by the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Brandenburg, Germany. Many of our athletes put their heart and soul into the selection process for the national teams. 65 22Dragons members were involved as athletes, drummers, steers, coaches, and chef de mission in the Canadian National teams, 59 of which were as paddlers. Congratulations to them on their performance at the World Championships. The Canadian delegation earned the most medals, bringing home 107 medals. 

Results for this event can be found via this link. 

Canadian National Championships 

This year, Nationals were held in Montréal in August, bringing in teams from across the country for the most competitive Nationals yet. This was a historic event for the club because it was the first time that our student teams attended nationals with both mixed and gender teams. The 22Dragons delegation was composed of 33 crews, 21 small boats and 12 standard boats, of which 14 crews finished on the podium. The juniors and 24U programs earned gold medals in all categories they entered. The premier division was especially competitive this year with the West coast teams, in the premier open final, the top three teams all raced their 500 m under 2 minutes, a feat that was previously only done three times. Dragon Zone set the new course record of 1:55.31, seconds ahead of the previously set record at the PanAmerican championships by 22Dragons of 1:57.16. The senior A small boats raced against extremely competitive teams and the open boat finished second and the women’s boat finished first. 

22Dragons earned the Junior Division Championship Burgee with 30.5 points (12 points ahead of H2O) and the 24U-PS Division Burgee with 184.5 points. 22Dragons was also awarded the overall club championship burgee for points accumulated throughout all divisions. 

Results for this event can be found via this link. 

Growth of the Senior and Premier Programs 

After this summer season, we took meaningful steps in an effort to recruit for our premier and senior programs. The response was overwhelmingly positive with both programs starting the winter season with more athletes than ever. We are looking forward to developing these new and returning athletes further and achieving new levels of performance with you all. 

Growth and Success of the 24U-PS Programs 

22Dragons is lucky to have the strongest 24U-PS network in the country with four college and university teams and a 24U team. The 22D 24U-PS network alone is comprised of close to 500 athletes! As mentioned earlier, this summer was a milestone in 24U-PS racing at 22D because all four student teams raced at the national championships with both a mixed and gender boats, bringing home a silver and a bronze medal in the small boat open category. 22D’s 24U team, True Grit finished first in the mixed, open, and women standard boat categories, and in the small boat mixed category with a completely different roster. True Grit made history this summer by being the first 24U team to have won the mixed standard boat category three years in a row, a difficult feat due to the high turnaround related to the age restrictions. Additionally, this was the fourth time that 22Dragons earned the 24U championship burgee (2012, 2017, 2023, 2025). 

Events and Corporate Events 

22Dragons’ racing club is only possible thanks to the work done outside of the dragon boat world most of you know. The equipment we use is only financially possible thanks to the multitude of corporate events and external fundraising events that 22Dragons provides in Canada and in the United States. This year, 22Dragons’ boats travelled across North America, from California and Louisiana, up to Alberta and New Brunswick; a total of 49 fundraising and racing events were produced. 

22Dragons Leadership Beyond the Club 

Along with being one of the largest dragon boat racing clubs in the world, the club is home to many members that take an active role in shaping the world of dragon boating. The work that these members do to grow our sport is done as volunteers. Thank you for your contribution to dragon boat nationally and internationally. I want to take a bit of time to highlight who they are within the club and their involvement outside the club. We also want to recognize those who were involved in the National Teams as coaches and support staff; Katie Trinh (16U Ass. Coach), Carmen Sweetoo (24U Ass. Coach), Wendi Zhou (Premier Coach), Matthew Smith (Premier Coach), and Lyne Larivière (Cheffe de Mission). 

Matthew Smith 

Matt is the co-owner of the club and the head coach of the premier and senior programs. This is already a full-time job, regardless, he has been heavily involved in the development of dragon boat internationally. Matt was the president of Dragon Boat Canada from 2006 to 2017, a founding member and vice president of the Pan American Dragon Boat Federation since its inception in 2011, and a vice president of the International Dragon Boat Federation since 2013. Since his involvement in dragon boat organizations in 2006, he has contributed to shaping the world of dragon boat racing we know today. Since the IDBF vice presidency is limited to 3 terms, Matt’s involvement as an elected official of the IDBF will end this year. At the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Germany this year, Matt was inducted into the IDBF Hall of Fame in the developer category. 

Outside of his involvement in dragon boat politics and in the club, Matt is a long-time coach of the Canadian Premier National Team. He also contributes to the DBC Rules Change Committee and acts as the Chief Official for many races every year. 

Wendi Zhou 

Wendi is one of the coaches and drummer of the 22Dragons premier program. She is also a founding member of both True Grit, 22Dragons’ 24U team, and of McGill’s dragon boat club, Dragon Boat Z. Outside the club, she was recently re-elected to the DBC board of Directors, after having been part of it previously as a Central Region Director. She is also the long-time chair of the DBC Youth Racing Committee and of the IDBF Youth Commission. At this year’s IDBF congress, Wendi was elected, with the largest number of votes, as a vice president of the IDBF. Wendi is also the coach, along with Matt, manager, and drummer of the Canadian Premier National Team. 

Michael Wu 

Mike is the founding and current coach of True Grit. He has served on the DBC Board of Directors for many years now and is the Chair of the DBC High-Performance Committee until this year. He is still involved in the Committee as a liaison to the board and helps shape the national team programs. Mike also founded a student only event here at the canal called Battle at the Canal which provides more, and unique racing opportunities for Montreal’s student teams. 

Yuen Lee 

Yuen retired from dragon boat paddling this year after a final season with the senior program. Yuen had served on the DBC Board of Directors until this year in which capacity she also served on the DBC Health and Safety Committee. 

Eugene Sweetoo 

Eugene is a paddler in the premier program. Before this, he was with True Grit as a paddler since 2018 and captain since 2021. Today, he coaches the senior program, Marianopolis’ dragon boat club, and the Red Pandas as well as being the club manager at 22Dragons. His involvement in the greater world of dragon boat began this year when he was elected to the DBC Board of Directors. With Wendi’s election to the IDBF Executive Committee, Eugene will be taking on her role as the chair of the DBC Youth Committee and was appointed to the IDBF Youth Commission. 

David Maréchal 

David is one of 22Dragons’ premier team’s longest standing member. David is also one of the rare athletes in the world that has raced at every single World Nations and Club Crew Championships for more than a decade. This summer, David was appointed to the IDBF Athletes’ Commission where he advocates for the interests of athletes within the organization. 

What’s Next? 

We’ve got big plans for the club this coming year: 

• We will be offering, for the first time, an instructor course and a steering clinic at the club.  

• A brand-new women’s community team called the Wavebreakers. 

• A brand-new All-Cancer Paddlers team that will be associated with Cedars CanSupport to offer a form of physical activity and a support community for any current or past patient that has been diagnosed with cancer. 

• 22Dragons and H2O Playground will be hosting the CanAmerican Club Crew Championships. 

For our racing club, the usual Montréal Challenge will be held in conjunction with the CanAmerican Championships which will hopefully offer racing against some American crews. A small delegation of about 70 premier and senior athletes will be heading to Taiwan in September for the Club Crew World Championships. For most of the club, this summer’s racing will have lower stakes, and we will be using this time to build our programs up for the 2027 National Championships which will qualify us for the 2028 Club Crew World Championships in… Barcelona, Spain! 

On this exciting note for the future, from the 22D office, enjoy your break, eat good food, have good company, and have a happy holiday season. As always, thank you for being part of the 22Dragons family. 

Matt, Matt, Lyne, Eugene, and May