American Samoa: navigating a new world of Beach Sprints

A total of 52 nations entered the 2025 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, including nine making their debut at the event.

Most of those nine – American Samoa, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Georgia, Iraq, Kuwait, Mexico, Paraguay and Thailand – are familiar to rowing fans, with regular competitors in flat water regattas. But American Samoa is not one of those. When Carneal Lilio and Tupulua Vaouli raced in the coastal under 19 men’s and women’s solos and mixed double sculls on Thursday, they made history for their nation.

American Samoa has entered one previous international competition, with a coastal mixed quadruple sculls crew racing in the 2019 World Rowing Coastal Championships. They have never had competitors at the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, but are hoping that Lilio and Vaouli’s debuts will spark something bigger.

“We’re trying to make American Samoa the hub of coastal rowing in the South Pacific,” explains Michael McDonald, the vice-president of the American Samoan Rowing Association.

Rowing is very much part of the American Samoan culture. Every year the islands’ villages come together to compete in longboats, known as ‘fautasi’, which seat 40 to 50 men (women do not row fautasi). Lilio has had three years rowing in fautasi, and says: “It’s full-on pride rowing for your village. It’s a very competitive sport, a lot of competition.”

But he got interested in beach sprints after attending a development camp in Australia, and says there are huge differences compared to rowing a fautasi.

“Racing over here is a totally different ballgame. You’re your own crew, whatever mistakes that you’ve done it’s on you, unlike the fautasi where one oarsman can make a mistake and the other person can fill in.”

Lilio and Vaouli are part of an effort by the federation to really grow coastal rowing in American Samoa. Early efforts to develop the sport were halted by the Covid-19 pandemic, but since then the federation has been working to get things up and running again.

McDonald explains there are about 15 active rowers currently, several of whom attended the camp in Australia that Lilio went on. Lilio adds that rowing is competing with land-based sports for attention.

“Usually for Samoans we’re more into American football and rugby and more of those violent sports,” he says, but adds: “Back in our ancestry the Polynesians and Samoans were masters of navigating the oceans, so being here, it’s humbling just to try to navigate through unknown territory.”

That said, the duo have found the Mediterranean Sea conditions in Antalya a little more gentle than the Pacific Ocean waves they are used to.

“Back home it’s more windy, you can see the whitecaps. I’m not saying this is nothing, but we’ve been training for this type of weather,” says Vaouli.

Both of the American Samoan rowers appreciate the opportunity they have to put their nation on the world stage, and make beach sprint rowing the centre of attention back home.

“It’s fun representing my home country and it’s truly an honour to be here and represent all my people back home, and kind of be a role model for the next generation, hopefully,” Lilio thinks.

McDonald’s hope is that American Samoa’s participation at the 2025 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals will provide the catalyst to make things take off.

“This will help us with publicity of the sport back home; everybody’s online, watching what they’re doing out here. Our expectation is that when they get back interest will be greater than what it was when we left,” he says.

As well as competing in Antalya, the American Samoan team are eyeing the beach sprint competition at the Dakar 2026 Summer Youth Olympic Games next year. And Vaouli, who is still just 15 years old, says she hopes rowing can bring her more opportunities, such as perhaps a chance to row at a US university in a few years’ time.

“Wherever it takes me, I’ll just be grateful and thankful for every opportunity and exposure that I get. I’m thankful to be here and just to see all the different people that love the sport of rowing,” she adds.