EXCLUSIVEWorld's first 'sperm race' goes off with a bang in LA
Two college students battled it out to the finish line in a ‘sperm race’ on Friday, dubbed the ‘world’s first ever reproductive health competition.’
The live contest - the brainchild of a group of tech-savvy teens - took place in downtown Los Angeles.
The combatants, University of Southern California student Tristan Milker, 20, and Asher Proeger, 19, who attends arch-rival University of California, Los Angeles - were described as ‘two legends’ on the official Sperm Racing website.
Spermatozoa was collected from the pair for the microscopic talent competition dubbed the ‘ultimate battle of fertility and fitness, racing their own sperm under the microscope.’
Milker was declared the winner after a best of three races and took home a $10,000 cash prize.
The $1.4 million spectacle took place at the LA Center Studios, which normally hosts Hollywood productions such as Dune, Top Gun: Maverick, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Mad Men.
Tickets for the event were listed as $20 for students, $40 for general admission with VIP tickets priced at $999.99.
The three young co-founders of the start-up are Eric Zhu, 17, Nick Small, 16 and popular influencer Shane Fan, 22. Their goal, they claim, is to raise awareness of male infertility.
After his victory, Tristin (pictured) told DailyMail.com: ‘I’m so proud'
Zhu started his first money-making business when he was aged 13 from the bathroom of Carmel High School in the Indiana town where the his family live
Before the racing began, Asher told DailyMail.com would make a down payment on a new Corvette if he won.
The former child actor and model said there is ‘crisis around fertility in men’ which is ‘getting worse as microplastics and other hormone blockers are brought into our diets.’
The economics major said the race is a ‘great way to raise awareness to make sure men are more fertile- - as well as being super entertaining and awesome.’
He insisted he was the ‘perfect guy’ for the competition and boasted, ‘My swimmers are strong. They're ready to pump out the greatest guys. And I think we're going to see that tonight.’
Asher, from Austin, Texas, attended private Waterloo School before moving to college in the Golden State.
He spent time growing up in Cape Town, South Africa, with his parents - who are missionaries - and two siblings.
His rival, Tristan, told Daily Mail he initially ‘laughed’ at the concept of a sperm race but then decided ‘this is amazing. This could blow up.’
The Indianapolis native, studying arts, technology and business, added: ‘It's important to let people know that you can improve your health very quickly. And your sperm is a great indicator of what that could be.'
The ‘race track’ was 8 inches long and is modeled on the female reproductive system
Race winner Tristan, told Daily Mail he initially ‘laughed’ at the concept of a sperm race but then decided ‘this is amazing. This could blow up'
Asher Proeger insisted he was the ‘perfect guy’ for the competition and boasted, ‘My swimmers are strong'
The event was originally scheduled to take place at the Hollywood Palladium but, Zhu told DailyMail.com, ‘they ended up kicking us out of the venue. They weren't happy with us and didn't like the press at all'
His plan for post-college, he said, is to ‘make cool s**t for the rest of my life.’
The event featured giant screens, weigh-ins, stats, leaderboards, play-by-play commentary, a half-time show as well as influencers and YouTubers in the 500-strong crowd interviewing each other.
Freshman Asher explained that the microscopic view of the sperm is ‘turned into an animation which will make it easier for us to watch.’
The semen samples were freshly collected shortly before the race kicked off to preserve their health.
First stored in incubation chambers at body temperature, they were then placed into a centrifuge - pushing the cells to the bottom - so they were able to be loaded onto two-lane track in a microfluidic channel.
A gentle electric current was used through the racetrack, to encourage the racing sperm to stay on course, as sperm naturally swim upstream.
The ‘race track’ was 8 inches long and is modeled on the female reproductive system.
Spermatozoa was collected from the pair for the microscopic talent competition dubbed the ‘ultimate battle of fertility and fitness, racing their own sperm under the microscope'
A gentle electric current was used through the racetrack, to encourage the racing sperm to stay on course, as sperm naturally swim upstream
'I feel that this kind of idea is crazy but it makes sense as well,’ said dad Sam Zhu, 49, (pictured left holding son Eric) a biological scientist for a large agricultural company
After his victory, Tristin told the DailyMail.com: ‘I’m so proud.’
Baby-faced Zhu, 17, who turns 18 in July, told DailyMail.com before the event started: ‘We're trying to make sperm much less of a taboo subject, more of a biomarker. It has always been associated with porn, so no one talks about it.’
‘But if we're able to make it into a biomarker that people could actually improve, we will change the paradigm.’
His mother, Yan, 47, and brother Eddy, 15, flew in from Indiana to see the spectacle in person.
Zhu started his first money-making business when he was 13 from the bathroom of Carmel High School in the Indiana town where the his family live.
He began creating and scaling business models in lockdown during the Covid pandemic, helping companies, including venture capital firms, manage their data systems.
He told the DailyMail.com he was kicked out of school after starting his first business, Aviato, after skipping classes.
He soon moved to San Francisco when he was 15, opened an office with a staff of ten and began connecting with tech gurus such as Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI.
Stephanie Sabourin, Director of Clinical Services for event sponsor Legacy, said 'We're in a global fertility crisis right now'
There were two other similar races prior to the main event, which included ‘undercards’ Noah Boat and Jimmy Zhang, both influencers.
The event was originally scheduled to take place at the Hollywood Palladium but, Zhu told the DailyMail.com, ‘they ended up kicking us out of the venue. They weren't happy with us and didn't like the press at all.
‘They had a lot of weird restrictions on us so we ended up separating from the agreement. It was an emergency. We worked around the clock to make this happen.’
Zhu said his parents would would still like him to be a doctor. They previously revealed to the DailyMail.com that they were in the dark about plans for the wild event until just last week.
‘I feel that this kind of idea is crazy but it makes sense as well,’ dad Sam Zhu, 49, a biological scientist for a large agricultural company, said.
T-shirts commemorating the race were on sale costing $35 and hoodies $55.
Software engineer Justin Ramirez, 33, attended the race with girlfriend Brittney Miller, also 33, and told the DailyMail.com he was surprised by the mostly college-age crowd.
‘I thought it would be funny,’ he said. ‘These are like kids that grew up on iPads. This is what happens when you take your iPads away - you start doing crazy s**t like this.
‘This could be the end of the world as we know it.’
He said the sperm race shown on large screens 'looked fake.'
Stephanie Sabourin, Director of Clinical Services for event sponsor Legacy, which does semen analysis and sperm freezing, attended the race in a lab coat on stage.
‘They reached out to us and we're looking for some clinical insight and actual medical representation for this event,’ she told DailyMail.com.
She specializes in men's health and said of Zhu and the team, ‘This is all super fun. It's very tongue-in-cheek but they're doing a great thing.
'We're in a global fertility crisis right now. It sounds very doom and gloom, but it's true.
‘The best advice I can give anybody is that as awkward and uncomfortable as it can be, having to have these difficult conversations about things like your sperm and your fertility, go test it.
‘The earlier you identify a problem, if you have one, the easier and faster it is to fix.’
Would you call the event a career highlight? ‘No.’
A cameraman working for the event was not impressed. ‘This is the downfall of society,’ he told the DailyMail.com.
