Upper Darby native becomes first Black woman to compete in U.S. Open Women’s Polo Championships
Shariah Harris said it was “surreal” when she rode out onto the polo pitch with her teammates for their first match earlier this month in the U.S. Open Women’s Polo Championship.
“Butterflies on a thousand,” Harris said. “But then once I started playing, it’s business as usual. I’ve played a lot of polo.”
But these matches weren’t exactly business as usual. They marked a significant moment in U.S. equestrian sports as Harris, who grew up in Upper Darby, became the first Black woman to compete in the annual professional tournament.
After losing in the semifinals last week, Harris, 25, returned home from Florida this week and said she’s still learning to accept all the recognition and attention she’s received.
“It’s still very weird to me,” she said, “but I’m learning to embrace it and use it to help other people break barriers into the sport.”
Considered one of the world’s oldest known sports, polo has long been dominated by white athletes of wealthy backgrounds. So as a Black woman from Greater Philadelphia, Harris said she’s used to being the “first” or “only” when it comes to the world of polo.
“I was either the only girl or then when I left my team in high school to play in college, I was the only Black person period,” she said.
Now, Harris finds that young Black girls are looking up to her, and she encourages them to “go for it.”
“If you don’t see anyone who looks like you, that’s OK,” Harris said. “It might not feel OK at the time, but it’s OK because you never know if you will be the catalyst for other people who look like you coming into the sport.”
As a college student, Harris competed with and led the women’s polo team at Cornell University. But she got her start in horseback riding many years earlier at the age of 8 when her mother literally stumbled upon the Work to Ride program based in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park.
“My mom and my younger brother, we all got lost in the park, made a wrong turn and we found the program,” Harris said. “My mom just saw other Black kids riding, and she was like, ‘OK, how can I get my kids involved in this?’”
Work to Ride started in 1994 as a nonprofit organization based at Chamounix Equestrian Center, which teaches horse care, riding and polo to underserved and under-resourced youth in the area.
