This article is part of Mochi’s winter 2023 issue, exploring what “environment” means to us as Asian Americans. From the environmentally friendly to your workplace, favorite neighborhood bar, or ethnic enclave — our environments are all that surrounds us, influences us and makes us who we are. Check out the rest of our issue here!
Located in Portland, Oregon, The Sports Bra opened in April 2022. It now has a bevy of fans from all walks of life, sports fans and beyond. Like any other sports bar across the country, Jenny Nguyen’s establishment serves up drinks and appetizers — what makes it different is its dedication to women’s sports.
From a young age, Jenny Nguyen loved sports. What she didn’t know is how her love for sports would support her as a teenager and how her passion for women’s sports would fuel the opening of a bar of her own.
Walk into The Sports Bra and you will find a fun and uproarious crowd, cheering on an Oregon Ducks game. In that way, it might not feel much different than going to any other sports bar — other than the fact that it’s well-lit, family-friendly, and has a warm ambiance to it … so maybe it is a lot different in those ways. But the biggest takeaway of all is that Nguyen only shows women’s sports.
Basketball and Identity
Nguyen remembers picking up her first basketball at the age of 5, learning to dribble and shoot, and from there, the rest was history. She elaborates, “I have distinct memories of being at Lloyd Center [mall] with my mom and at the basement of the Meyer and Frank [department store], there was a kid’s room. They had a Nerf ball and a basketball hoop. I would spend what would feel like hours — when it was probably 15 minutes — shooting and dunking on [the other kids].”
Other sports such as track and field, volleyball, and soccer just didn’t stick for Nguyen, although she was athletically inclined. From her youth to the day she opened The Sports Bra, basketball has always…
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