Introducing the Pho3nix Junior Team for 2024
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The Pho3nix Foundation is proud to unveil the 2024 roster for the Pho3nix Junior Team, a select group of exceptional young athletes poised to make their mark in the world of sports. Targeted at supporting promising athletes aged 16 to 20 years old, the Pho3nix Junior Team aims to bridge the gap between junior competition and professional success. This initiative focuses on emerging athletes in their late teens who have already demonstrated elite performance at national or international levels within junior divisions.
The Pho3nix Junior Team also serves as a vital stepping stone to the Pho3nix Team, the elite squad of athletes who embody the Pho3nix Foundation’s ideals of overcoming adversity and inspiring a passion for sport in the next generation.
The 2024 roster features a diverse group of athletes, each bringing unique strengths and a shared dedication to excellence.
The selection process also underscores the Pho3nix Foundation’s commitment to nurturing talent through both the breadth and reach of its activities as well as the depth of the relationships formed. These Pho3nix Junior Team athletes have come through the Pho3nix pathway and hail from nations with existing Pho3nix activities, ensuring a strong foundation of support and alignment with the Foundation’s goals.
Returning this year are tennis player Flynn Thomas (SUI), triathlete Gene Heart Quiambao (PHI), swimmer Surasit Thongdeang (THA), and parkour athlete Ruben Roldan (ESP). Joining them are hurdler Tayleb Willis (AUS), surfer Keira Buckpitt (AUS), skateboarder Martin Jaque (CHI), BMX rider George Hunt (GBR), and snowboarder Weronika Dawidek (POL).
Thomas is a five-time consecutive Swiss U12 champion and the #1 U14 and #2 U16 player in the world. With a career 84% win rate at the junior level under his belt, in 2023 he became the youngest-ever to compete on the ATP Tour at the age of 14.
Quiambao is on the Philippine national team, competing in regional championships. A national duathlon champion and two-time Youth Triathlete of the Year, she is also a three-time University Athletic Association of the Philippines swimming champion and record holder.
Thongdeang is a Thai swimmer with multiple national, Southeast Asian, and Asian age group medals under his belt. Specialising in butterfly, he has represented his nation at the 2022 Asian Games and 2023 Southeast Asian Games.
Roldan hasn’t let losing a leg in a tractor accident 12 years ago at the age of nine stop him from rising to the challenges of his chosen sport and even setting a Guinness World Record. In the nine years he has been doing parkour, he has performed at the most important theatres in Spain, appeared on Got Talent editions in Spain and Germany, and has been invited to train and demonstrate his skills at Keep the Flow and Urban Sessions in Brussels, Belgium and Oslomovement in Oslo, Norway.
Willis is a five-time Australian national junior champion and the third fastest Australian junior in history over the 99 cm 110m hurdles. He went undefeated from 2019 to 2021 and even when transitioned from junior hurdles to open hurdles has logged an astounding 85% winning percentage to date.
Buckpitt is the 2021 Australian national U18 surfing champion, #2 Australian junior pro surfer and Australia team captain at the 2023 ISA World Junior Surfing Championships. The talented surfer from Culburra Beach qualified to surf the 2023 WSL World Junior Tour, placing 9th at the World Junior Championships in Oceanside, California.
Jaque is the 2022 South American Skateboarding Championship bronze medalist, placed fourth at the 2023 Pan American Games and is now ranked #1 nationally in park skateboarding, with his sights set on Paris 2024. At the age of 15, he was the youngest-ever selected for the Chilean skateboarding team.
Hunt is the 2023 #2 junior elite BMX cyclist in Great Britain and two-time Midlands elite champion. From racing on small four-lane tracks in the middle of nowhere, he’s now competing on some of the biggest stages in the world.
Weronika is addicted to the adrenaline and speed in Alpine snowboard. The 8-time Polish junior champion has steadily climbed the ranks, bettering a 4th place at the 2022 FIS Junior World Championships with a silver medal this year to become junior vice world champion.
All with stated goals of attaining the pinnacle of their respective sports, these young talents represent the future and embody the spirit of resilience and determination that the Pho3nix Foundation champions.
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