The bad boy of badminton? In Asia, this is serious stuff
By Michelle Kaufman | The Miami Herald
BEIJING – When most people think badminton, they think backyard picnic, plastic birdie, a couple of beers. But then, most people have never seen Olympic badminton players smash the shuttlecock at speeds of up to 200 mph. They have never mingled amongst sellout crowds in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Denmark.
They don't realize elite badminton players are very finicky about their equipment. That they insist on cork shuttles with 16 overlapping feathers from the left wing of a goose. Not the right wing. Only the left. (Something about the curvature of the left-side feathers and aerodynamics.) A tube of a dozen Yonex AeroSensa shuttlecocks goes for about $36. Lightweight graphite rackets can run as high as $800.
Yes, Olympic badminton is serious stuff.
And nobody is more serious about his sport than Lin Dan of China, the world's No. 1-ranked player and the guy who put the "bad'' in badminton. The spiky-haired lefty is known as much for his on-court outbursts as his remarkable record. He disputes calls, breaks rackets, and reportedly punched a coach. The John McEnroe of badminton in one of the most recognizable Chinese athletes at the Olympics, behind only Yao Ming and hurdler Liu Xiang.
"Super Dan'' also happens to be dating the world's No. 1 women's player, Xie Xingfang. They have been a couple since 2004, and are rumored to be getting engaged after the Olympics. Together they have been nicknamed the 'Condor Couple', a reference to a popular Chinese novel about a bratty young warrior and his calmer, older lover.
Lin and Xie are like the Brangelina of Chinese sports, their every move chronicled by the national media. They are under immense pressure to win. The Chinese have dominated badminton since the sport was added to the Olympic menu in 1992. They have won 22 medals and eight golds. Indonesia is next with 15 medals and five golds.
Badminton tickets were among the first to sell out for these Olympics, and they probably could have sold plenty more if the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium held more than 7,800 people. The atmosphere was electric during the first two days of competition, and players from non-badminton-loving countries got to feel like rock stars for a change.
They get asked for autographs, and are hounded by fans who want their photos.
"The crowd cheered me on as if I was a popular player,'' said Anna Rice of Canada. "It's really cool to be valued for what you are doing, and you can sense the appreciation. When you do a really difficult rally you know that they can appreciate it because a lot of them are players themselves. ... They know who you are. They value your sport.''
Eva Lee, a U.S. player from California, said she was "quite nervous'' during her loss to Rice because she wasn't used to playing in front of a packed house. "The gym is a lot bigger than what I'm used to. The stage is bigger and there is a lot more anticipation and pressure.''
Badminton has been played for centuries in the Far East. A form of the sport called "Poona,'' was played in India, and British Army officials adopted the sport in the 1860s when they were stationed in India. Most of the best players still hail from Asian nations.
All five U.S. players in Beijing are first- or second-generation Asian Americans whose families emigrated from Vietnam, Laos, Taiwan, the Philippines and Hong Kong. In addition to Lee, the U.S. team includes Howard Bach, Khan "Bob'' Malaythong, Mesinee "May" Mangkalakiri, and Raju Rai.
"The talent pool in Asia is amazingly large,'' Malaythong said in a recent interview. "They go after badminton all or nothing there and for every one player on a team, there are 1,000 players who didn't make it. I am not entirely sure that if I lived in Asia today if I would have made it to this level. Badminton is more than just a sport in Asia; it is a chance for a better life.''
In the U.S., it remains a niche sport and its epicenter is the Orange County Badminton Club in Southern California. All five U.S. players train there in a badminton-specific gym built by businessman Don Chew, a Thai immigrant whose daughter runs a restaurant out of the gymnasium.
Crowds at matches there are typically in the hundreds. But in Asia, it's a different story. Fans here appreciate the world's fastest racket sport. A study was once done comparing badminton to tennis, and the results might surprise the average sports fan. A three-hour men's tennis match was compared with a one-and-a-half-hour badminton match.
The tennis match had 299 rallies to 146 for badminton, but the badminton players traded 1,972 shots while the tennis players combined for 1,004 shots. The average shots per rally were 3.4 for tennis and 13.5 for badminton. The fastest serve ever recorded in men's tennis was 153 mph by Andy Roddick. And the fastest badminton smash was 206 mph by Fu Haifeng.
In other words, save the plastic-skirted birdies for your picnics. It's time for goose feathers.
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