Family stunned to learn their beloved son is behind world's first sperm race
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The family of a teenager behind a first-of-its-kind ‘sperm race’ has told Daily Mail they were in the dark about the shocking contest until last week.
Baby-faced Eric Zhu teamed up with other teenage tech overachievers to create the eye-popping spectacle scheduled that will take place on April 25 in a downtown Los Angeles space that's normally used as an interior set for Hollywood movies.
Their plan is to live race sperm in order to raise awareness of male infertility. They're using $1.4million in funds raised from Silicon Valley investors to throw the event.
But Zhu's parents had no clue he was behind it.
‘I had no idea what was going on until my international friends called me last Wednesday,’ he recalled Zhu’s father, Sam, 49. ‘They said they saw some news about it on a website.’
His wife, Yan, 47, and younger son, Eddy, an accomplished competitive swimmer, will be attending the race in person while Sam livestreams it at home.
Despite a last-minute change of venue, amped up spectators are expected to cheer on two college students who will have their spermatozoa battle it out to the finish line in a microscopic talent competition.
Tickets for the event are listed as $20 for students and $40 for general admission. VIP tickets are priced at $999.99.
A description of the event on the Dice ticket platform boasts with fanfare: ‘Witness the world’s first live sperm race — where science meets sport.
‘Two college students, featuring Tristan Mykel and Asher Proeger, will compete in the ultimate battle of fertility and fitness, racing their own sperm under the microscope.’
It states there will be ‘live visuals and epic commentary’ or the ‘historic showdown.’
The event was originally to be held at the Hollywood Palladium, a famed Los Angeles concert location, but venue bosses ‘didn’t like the press they were getting’ and cancelled the contract last week.
‘Palladium ended up kicking us out of the venue, Zhu told Daily Mail. ‘They didn't like the press at all.’
Zhu and his team of entrepreneurs, including former Mr Beast content strategist Garrett Niconienko, scrambled to find a new venue and now the show is being held at the LA Center Studios in downtown Los Angeles.
‘I feel that this kind of idea is crazy, but I think about it, it makes sense as well,’ Sam, a biological scientist for a large agricultural company.
‘Initially I was very surprised but now I think it's a good idea.’
Sam first heard about his son’s bizarre scheme from a friend across the other side of the globe on April 16.
His eldest son started his first money-making business when he was 13 from the bathroom of Carmel High School in the Indiana town (pop: 100,000) where the family live.
Zhu began creating and scaling business models in lockdown during the Covid pandemic, helping companies, including venture capital firms, manage their data systems.
He told Daily Mail he was kicked out of Carmel High School after starting his first business, Aviato, in the bathroom while skipping classes.
‘I was stuck at home during Covid and just started speaking with as many people as possible in business and finance..
Eventually, with his first business flourishing, Zhu moved to San Francisco when he was 15, opened an office and began connecting with tech gurus such as Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI.
Another tech wunderkind, 16-year-old Nick Small, head of business manager consulting firm Stealth, is also a co-founder of the sperm start-up.
The event will feature stats, leaderboards and instant replays. play-by-play commentary, instant replays and leaderboard.
The ‘race track’ being used is 8 inches long and is modelled on the female reproductive system.
‘Faster sperm is healthier sperm,’ Zhu told Daily Mail. “And no one has really paid attention to sperm health recently. Like if you look at it, like 50 years ago, sperm count has declined by half.’
Two students from rival universities, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles, were found to have ‘matching biomarkers’ and selected to take part.
The company’s manifesto, Zhu wrote online, states: ‘Sperm racing isn't just about racing sperm (although, let's be honest, that's hilarious). it's about turning health into a competition. it's about making male fertility something people actually want to talk about, track, and improve.
‘We're taking a topic no one wants to touch and making it interesting, measurable, and weirdly changing this paradigm. Because health is a race and everyone deserves a shot at the starting line.
‘We've put together a team of researchers and operators who's built things people said couldn't work—and made them massive.’
Zhu commented that the goal was to have fun while raising awareness about male fertility. ‘We want to turn health into competition,’ he told Daily Mail.
‘Sperm is surprising as a biomarker. The healthier you are, the faster sperm moves.’
Once the fresh sperm samples have been retrieved - shortly before the race - they will be placed in a pipette and injected into a ‘microfluid device.’
A live video feed, magnified 40 times to display the 0.05mm sperm, will track their progress to the finish line.
Sperm typically swim at about 5mm per minute, meaning each race will take at least 40 minutes. Whichever crosses the finishing line first, as ‘verified by advanced imaging’, will be declared the winner.
‘We’re taking a topic no one wants to touch and making it interesting, measurable and weirdly changing this paradigm,” Zhu said.
Zhu added the goal was to have fun while raising awareness about male fertility. ‘We want to turn health into competition.’
His parents moved to the States China 25 years ago to attend graduate school and were living in New Jersey when they started a family before moving to Indiana.
‘My wife and I, we are quite open-minded,’ said Sam of his approach to parenting.
‘We don’t like other Asian parents - they put on too much pressure for the study of mathematics or other activities to ask a lot of work from kids.
‘We just let them do what they are interested in.’
Sam said he believes there are two main factors for raising kids.
‘The first one is safety…you need to be safe outside,’ he said. ‘The other is no drugs!’
His high-flying soon is ‘good at getting along with people. He learned lot from genius people he met in San Francisco. He learned from those people older than him and hired a lot of genius people, who are are smarter than him.’
