Vancouver teens win at debate tournaments held by Harvard and Stanford

While some international competitions have been cancelled, a pair of Vancouver teenagers had a massive February when they won big tournaments held by Harvard and Stanford universities.

The team of Mia Liu (Grade 9 from Lord Byng Secondary School) and Sarah Lin (Grade 10 from Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School) took home the top prizes in the novice division in each the 35th Annual Stanford Invitational Forensics Tournament and the 47th Annual Harvard National Forensics Tournament, two of the world's biggest debate tournaments. They're the first Canadian team to win back-to-back, according to their team, the Vancouver Debate Academy (VDA).

In each tournament, there were hundreds of students competing, and the duo swept through. At Stanford they won five straight debates to take the championship; they followed that up with an even better record, going 11-0.

"Over the course of the entire tournament, they debated in front of 25 judges and only lost a single ballot. This kind of record is equivalent to pitching a no-hitter in baseball," says the VDA in a press release.

Bryan Weber, director at the VDA, was quite proud of the duo, along with others from the VDA.

"VDA students had quite an exciting February so far! Mia Liu and Sarah Lin became the first Canadian team to win back-to-back championships at Stanford and Harvard, Joseph Mai and Angela Hu finished second at Harvard in their division, and a total of 50 VDA students were awarded trophies in both speech and debate," he says in an email to Vancouver is Awesome.

Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), the debates were held online instead of in-person this year. The Stanford debates took place from Feb. 6 to 8, while the Harvard debates were Feb. 15 to 17.

In a press release, Lin notes the pandemic has, in a way, opened a door for them.

"Looking on the bright side, the pandemic has opened up a lot more opportunities for debaters because we are able to participate in more international tournaments, which we didn’t have the time and money for when it was all in-person,” she says.