From May 5-17, 2023, Cambodia, a nation known for its rich history and vibrant culture, hosted the 32nd annual Southeast Asian Games, uniting athletes from across the region to showcase their talents and pride for their respective nations. Among the participants was recent UMass Lowell graduate and former member of the UMass Lowell track and field team, Patrick Pang ('22), who journeyed back to his homeland to represent Cambodia on the international athletic stage.
 
Pang and his family were born in Cambodia, immigrating to the United States in 2004, when Patrick was about five and a half years old. They first lived in Fairfield, Connecticut before moving to Massachusetts and Texas and back to Massachusetts again, where they eventually ended up in Peabody. Although he does not remember much of his time spent in Cambodia, he still had to go through the plethora of changes and obstacles that come with immigrating to another country, while still maintaining his passion for his home country.
 
"Growing up, you kind of know you're a little bit different," said Pang. "Especially living in Fairfield. It's very predominantly white, so we moved around a lot. We went to Lynn, Texas, then moved to Peabody eventually and that's where we are. There are not too many Cambodians around the Peabody area, so my parents did a really good job of just speaking the language. That's how we communicate with my grandmothers. We go to temple, and we learn about that culture."
 
On top of the difficulties of growing up in a predominantly white area as a Cambodian American, the language barrier played a big role in Patrick's upbringing.
 
"I didn't know English for the first few years I was in America," said Pang. "I had to do a lot of ELS stuff. My sister and I were just trying to learn English, and at the same time, we're going home and learning Khmer to speak with my family. It was a weird interaction because growing up, my parents were also learning English with us, so our sister and I acted as almost a translator for the first like 10-15 years, and so going to the doctors, we always went with them. We were never just hanging out at home or anything like that."
 
As it was not exactly the conventional childhood compared to others around them, Patrick and his sister were able to mature at an earlier age, since they were forced to adjust to this different life.
 
"The teachers would recommend the parents like 'you should read to your kids,' right? And I'm like 'ugh my parents are learning how to read with me,' so I'm like 'what do I do?'" explained Pang. "So, it was a lot of my sister and I helping my parents because they are working, they're trying to learn a new language, they're trying to provide for us, so we just did a lot more mature things for our parents than a normal seven-year-old would've done at the time."
 
In terms of athletics, Patrick had a late start, but that did not stop him from working hard to become the best he could be. After realizing in middle school that cross country was not the sport for him, he started to learn more about track and field and eventually made his way into the sport, specifically the throwing events.  
 
"When I found out that track and field had different events, I tried hurdles, long jump, and then eventually gravitated towards throwing events," said Pang. "I found discus really cool, and that's how I got my way into the track and field scene."
With no thoughts of competing at any collegiate level, Patrick entered high school competing in track and field for the love of the sport, but the more he learned, the more he realized that he could improve. He gradually developed the desire to continue at the next level as his high school years went on and it all started during his sophomore year.
 
"I had no idea I was even going to be able to compete collegiately, much less come to UMass Lowell or a Division I program," said Pang. "I was flopping around for the first couple years. Sophomore year, I was eventually throwing weight. My coach taught me how to throw weight, and somehow, I had a massive PR that qualified me for nationals, and then from there I was like 'let's just see how far I can get.'"
 
However, athletics was still not a massive part of Patrick's life at that point, as he branched out to try a handful of different activities such as mock trial, band and chorus in order to explore different interests. As those experiences went on, he always gravitated back towards track and field, confirming his love to compete.
 
This love was not only in athletics, as a different passion blossomed as he grew older, and that was physical therapy. Throughout his college experience, the idea of helping people through physical therapy became his off-the-field goal, but he strives to do it in a different way.  
 
"What I want out of it is to go out into the field and develop this, I don't even know what to call it, but just have this physical therapy allotment to everybody, you know having everybody have access to it and stuff like that," said Pang. "My end-of-life goal is to develop some sort of fund or system where you can apply for financial aid in terms of your physical therapy visits and then be an advocate for physical therapy visits like a physical, so a once-a-year assessment. With a physical, you're looking at more of internal organs kinds of things, like internal medicine, whereas a physical therapy assessment is like 'let's take a look at your lower back pain, your neck, how are your ergonomics,' and stuff like that."
 
As he balanced both graduate school and athletics simultaneously at UMass Lowell, which proved to require hard work and strategic planning of his days, Patrick found out about the Southeast Asian Games from UMass Lowell Athletic Academic Coordinator Sima Suon, who represented Cambodia in the 2022 games, hosted by Vietnam. She helped to organize and played for Cambodia's women's basketball team, which was inactive in the games since 1974. After speaking with Sima, Patrick's eyes were opened to not only the possibility of competing at the games, but competing in a year that was hosted by Cambodia. He set his sights on being able to represent his country, while bringing awareness of Cambodia to America.
 
"The biggest thing was when I found out it was hosted in Cambodia in 2023," said Pang. "When you think of Cambodia, you think it's this rural third world country and think 'how are they able to supply.' Now, that mentality is kind of warped. Cambodia is flourishing, they're up and coming, there's a lot of great developments happening. Yes, there's still that poverty side, but I know that will eventually move into a better world over there. So, for Cambodia to host this international competition, it just goes to show that they are up and coming, they are growing and recovering very well. This is their first international competition in over 40 years, ever since the Khmer Rouge. Ever since the devastation of that era, they've really come back well. And so, I wanted to go and represent my nation and just be like 'hey, we're out here. We're representing, we're growing strong.'"
 
As much as he desperately wanted to travel back and compete, it was not the easiest road to Cambodia for Patrick. The journey to being accepted for the games included about eight months of radio silence after reaching out to compete. During those eight months, since his collegiate career had ended, he had slowed down his training, focused more on hobbies and work, while also receiving his strength and conditioning certification. He had gone from 20 hours of training per week to about three, losing 30-40 pounds and a significant amount of his strength and power.
 
Eventually, about eight or nine weeks before the games, Patrick decided to reach out one final time and he officially got the ok. As a result, the next seven weeks consisted of rushing to get everything in his life set up for the trip. On top of plane tickets and packing, he had to kickstart his training, all while having over four weeks left of his academic semester. He was able to receive support from UMass Lowell academic and athletic staff to help prepare him as best he could for the games.
 
"Thankfully, Dr. King, who is the program director of Physical Therapy, has been very helpful," said Pang. "All of the professors have been extremely helpful. They either moved up certain exams or they allowed me to take it overseas through Blackboard, which was an amazing opportunity. So, once that academic side was settled, I was like 'oh man I have to sit down and figure out my program,' because since I left UMass Lowell, I don't have access to a strength and conditioning program anymore. I sat down and I wrote a seven-week program, and I was like 'how am I going to get my strength and power back up?' I knew I wasn't going to get any hypertrophy, I wasn't getting any more strength, so my training program was very dedicated to just stimulating as many muscles as you can, try to get the nervous system going a little bit more. So, I had to sit down and write that. Then I contacted Coach Barb who is the throws coach here (at UMass Lowell) and I'm like 'hey, here's what's going on, can I please come throw with you. I don't have any equipment,' and Barb was like 'come on home.' So, it was really nice to have this amazing support system in Lowell."
 
Once all the preparation was over, it was finally time to head to Cambodia for this trip of a lifetime. Surrounded by the best athletes of Southeast Asia across a multitude of sports, the opening ceremonies captured Patrick's attention, flooding him with national pride. Because they were the host nation, Cambodia had the most athletes of any country at the games, as they lined up in rows at the ceremony in their traditional attire.
 
"We're walking in, and I hear the announcer go 'Cambodia!' and then eruption," explained Pang. "The crowd goes wild, and they were like 'Cambodia! Cambodia!' and I'm just in absolute awe. I wanted to take a video, but I was like 'this isn't worth it, I just want to absorb it, take it in.' We walked around, they're all screaming and cheering. I felt the most national pride at that moment and was like 'I'm so happy to be Cambodian, I'm so happy to be home, I'm so happy to be competing.'"
 
Using the opening ceremonies as motivation for the hammer throw competition, Pang began his practice. The week leading up to the competition did not treat him too well, as he battled through schoolwork, food poisoning and a back injury.
 
"It was the day before the meet and I was like 'oh boy, let's just see what happens,' said Pang. "The day of the meet, the back felt good, but it wasn't it. I ended up throwing about 52 meters, which is seven meters below where I've thrown before, so it was substantial difference for me but at the same time I was able to make finals, I got all six throws and was still able to represent Cambodia at the end of the day."
 
He may not have been happy about his mark, knowing what his capabilities are, but there was still appreciation for this opportunity to represent his country in such a monumental event. He even received some great news about his performance just days after, despite his personal thoughts. He had broken the Cambodian national record for the hammer throw.
 
"One of the coaches told me a couple days after I had landed that my throw was technically the national record, so pretty cool," said Pang. "I'm hoping to go back and extend that, have a better mark and have a more meaningful mark to me."
 
Pang is always seeking improvement, even after recording the best hammer throw in Cambodian history, which speaks to his mindset and how he approaches both his professional and athletic life. Upon return, he immediately focused on the next Southeast Asian Games.
 
"I would love to go back," said Pang. "I know the next games are in Thailand in December of 2025 and I would love to go back. So, what I've been told is that I need to hit one of the top three medal positions, so once I do that, I'll have a more guaranteed position on the team. And so, I came back, took care of my back and started training again."
 
Improving his performance in the competition is not Patrick's only focus, however. He came back to America with valuable lessons learned and knowledge gained. Experiencing the country, culture and just the everyday lives that the people in Cambodia live left an impact on him.
 
"It's just the duality of Cambodia," said Pang. "Over there, when you're rich, you're really rich, and when you're poor, you're really poor. I met a lot of people whose families were surviving on not a lot every day, like maybe 10 dollars a day. I talked to a lot of the athletes, and for them, it's more of a living, they are training to make a living to send money back home or to survive."
 
Pang says that the key to earning this opportunity is to never give up. There are a lot of obstacles, but the journey of overcoming them is well worth it in the end.
 
"In terms of going to Cambodia and competing, don't give up," said Pang. "There's a massive communication barrier, there's a massive number of things behind the scenes that you don't even understand, you don't even know. As a Cambodian American athlete, just keep persevering. That's kind of the theme of Cambodia – perseverance. They really love to show how durable they are and how fast they are able to come back."
 
This trip opened a new door for Patrick to not only continue to compete for Cambodia in future events, but also to give back to the nation and stay true to his roots. Although Cambodia is thriving in many aspects, Patrick says that donations go a long way in terms of their track and field equipment. He continues to spread that message along with the various lessons he learned along this incredible journey.
 
"I would just say, even though Cambodia is still flourishing, they do really benefit from donations," said Pang. "So, a lot of their track and field equipment, they don't have the proper funding, so if anybody who sees this or anybody who is out there has extra or donatable track and field equipment, whether its plyo boxes, ladders, extra shoes, it would be really great to send it over there. They can reach out to me; I can give them contact information, but donations are great. If you send money over, it goes through a bunch of those vines and wires and you don't really know where it gets to, but at least if you send a plyo box, they're not going to just put that in a random place, they're actually going to use it. That's my last message, any sort of donation would be amazing to help Cambodia."