Master Chai, President of the World Muay Thai Kickboxing Association, has hand-picked the USA team to compete and train in Thailand January 13-26, 2018. Two McElroy's Martial Arts Academy students, Riley McElroy and Travis Sims, are among only 40 total martial artists to have been chosen for the USA team. Both are students of Sifu Rick McElroy who has trained with Master Chai for over 30 years.

Both Riley and Travis passed the grueling Muay Thai test in 2015. This included doing 40 knees and 60 kicks for two rounds against a pad holder as pad holder punishes you by kicking outside and inside your legs and boxing you with pads… not an easy test at all. It also included performing the ceremonial dance and taking a written test for related Thai language terms.