Lankenau nurse is first Black player to compete at U.S. Women's Polo Championship
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A nurse from Philadelphia recently became the first Black player to compete in the U.S. Women's Polo Championship.
Shariah Harris started riding at Philadelphia's Work to Ride program for underprivileged kids and went on to earn a scholarship to Cornell University, where she led the polo team to the national finals. She recently made it to the semifinals of the U.S. Women's Polo Championship.
She's now a surgical nurse at Lankenau Medical Center, where her colleagues gave her a hero's welcome Wednesday.
"There's always going to be a burden, there's always going to be people looking up to you, people looking at you to inspire them," Harris said. "Really, I just love the sport and want to play."
She's always been driven by her love of horses, she said.
"I don't think any polo player can tell you the horse wasn't their biggest draw to the sport," she said. "The adrenaline, the fast pace comes later, but your initial love is the horse."
Both nursing and polo require thinking ahead and being "quick on your feet," Harris said, adding that horses are complicated and unpredictable, just like the challenges she faces in the operating room.
"The best part [of being an operating room nurse] is seeing all the different things that can come out of your body," she said. "The worst part is when something goes wrong."
But there haven't been any wrong turns in her career or her hobby, where she's riding high.