FromChinatoHaBaWaBa:Shine'sFirstTime

From the “city of pandas” to Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy: that’s the journey of over 7,700 km traveled by the kids of Shine Aquatics Club in order to participate in HaBaWaBa International Festival, the largest youth waterpolo event in the world. They come from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, which is home to the natural habitat of giant pandas — an animal that also features in the club's logo. The U13 roster has already landed in Italy to train with some teams from the Veneto region. Their arrival in Lignano is scheduled for Sunday, June 21, to participate in the tournament dedicated to players born in 2013, which kicks off the following day. Shine is the first Chinese team to ever participate in HaBaWaBa International Festival: Leading them is Daniele Ferri, an Italian coach who moved to China after previously contributing to the growth of waterpolo in Thailand, where he also served as the head coach of the women's national team.

“For years I had it in mind to bring the team to Italy to participate in HaBaWaBa - Ferri says - Unfortunately, June is an exam period in China, and in past years it wasn't possible. This year, we provided the schools with special documentation to allow the athletes to travel to Italy. The schools, partly thanks to the prestige their students gained by winning national championships, gave their approval. Obviously, the kids are incredibly happy and proud to represent China. We will try to achieve a good result to encourage other Chinese teams to participate in future editions”. Shine represents the vanguard of Chinese youth waterpolo. “Shine Aquatics Club has about 100 registered members in waterpolo, and we have around 30 players in the HaBaWaBa categories (U13, U11, and U9, ed.). In addition, Shine supports elementary and middle schools wishing to start waterpolo programs: many of them have a swimming pool and offer students the choice of one or more sports. Since they don't have specialized coaches, they turn to us to launch the activity and form teams that then participate in school tournaments. In recent years, we have revolutionized the system in the Sichuan region, and thanks also to HaBaWaBa China, many kids have started playing waterpolo before the age of 10. The U13 team arriving in Lignano participated in HaBaWaBa China 2023 when they were still in the U10 category; since then, they haven't stopped”. Therefore, the top team of a growing movement is arriving at HaBaWaBa. “The 2025 Chinese National Championships recorded the highest participation ever: about 25 teams in the U12 category (among state, club, and school teams) and 10 teams in the U10 category - Ferri states -. In China, there are official youth competitions for the U10, U12, U15, and U18 categories. And other Chinese provinces, partly thanks to our support, have several school and club teams. Some of these teams have already expressed a desire to join us in playing international tournaments as early as next year, and certainly, the HaBaWaBa International Festival could represent an excellent experience for their growth path”. The HaBaWaBa International Festival will allow Shine to test themselves against teams from all over the world, but according to coach Ferri, the Chinese team isn't coming to Italy just to participate… “Most of the players who will be in Lignano started playing waterpolo in 2022, the same year my tenure in China began. All the athletes were swimmers from our club or from the swimming schools we collaborate with. This is an excellent group, full of talent, with whom we have worked well over the last few years, taking part in experiences in Europe and Australia every year to face the best youth clubs in the world. This team won the Chinese National Championships in both 2024 and 2025, as well as various provincial tournaments. Furthermore, last year they won a tournament in Sydney, facing most of the best clubs in New South Wales. In 2024, we were also in Italy, where we had the pleasure of playing a series of friendly matches against several teams from Liguria”.

In Ferri's opinion, Chinese waterpolo has great potential, but also problems to solve to raise its quality to an international level. "Chinese teams in general, both youth and senior, are very fast and physically well-prepared. However, state and club teams do not have the opportunity to play a weekly championship, but only provincial and national tournaments. This limits continuous confrontation and prevents the movement from growing technically and tactically, as happens in the best European countries. It is a problem that affects all Asian countries which, in my view, should be put in a position to play an Asian Champions League for club teams, just as happens in Europe”. For the Italian coach, China will very soon be able to bridge the gap that separates it from the top national teams, dispelling the taboo that sees it excelling only in individual disciplines. "China excels in individual sports also because what matters most there is often continuous and repeated training, during which you compete with yourself to achieve perfection — a reality very different from team sports, where many dynamics are quite distinct. In recent years, thanks also to the work done by Shine in supporting various provinces, great progress has been made in waterpolo. I am convinced that this new generation will be able to make an important contribution to the Chinese National Team over the next 20 years”. However, the importance of a Chinese team's presence at HaBaWaBa goes beyond sport. “As I always tell my colleagues - Ferri says - HaBaWaBa is the ‘World Championships’ for the very young: a truly unique event. Our athletes will have to show discipline inside and outside the water, fair play, and create friendships that can last a lifetime. In the hope that young people from such distant countries can, together, contribute — starting from the simple sharing of a ball — to making the world a better place: today more than ever, it is crucial that our kids understand how sport can unite, educate, and represent a concrete alternative to the violence and tragedies that have marked recent years”.

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