Badminton Is No Picnic for Her

Your newest Olympic medal sport features a little birdie that sometimes reaches speeds in excess of 140 m.p.h. Anaheim’s Erika von Heiland once got hit in the right eye with one and couldn’t see for a week.

This is the same game that probably has been played by anyone who ever attended a company picnic or a neighbor’s barbecue. Yet, people laugh when von Heiland says it pays for her tuition and books at Arizona State University.

This is the sport that requires more stamina and a higher aerobic fitness level than any other racket game. Still it wallows in obscurity.

And so it goes for poor badminton, star of afternoon wienie and hamburger roasts everywhere. If ever a sport needed an image readjustment, this is it.

Of course, the U.S. Badminton Assn. is doing what it can. Walk into the Olympic Festival media room and you’ll find more badminton literature then you thought possible. Magazines, newsletters, brochures, media guides, fact sheets, notes of supposed interest. A badminton bibliography even is available, as if anyone is actually going to run to the library in search of “Shuttlecock Action” or “Better Badminton For All.”

“We’re just trying to be thorough,” press officer Bob Ericson said sheepishly.

And with good reason. Witness the time von Heiland, a member of the U.S. National Team, was on a flight to Boston one winter when a woman overheard her talking about badminton.

“Can I ask you something?” the woman said.

“Of course,” said von Heiland.

“How are you going to be able to play in the snow?”

“Uh, we play indoors.”

“Oh.”

Von Heiland, 23, is familiar with the blank looks, the uninformed questions. Truth is, she has experienced much worse, especially from Americans, who generally think a badminton racquet is something you store in the garage next to the croquet set.

“They totally laugh,” von Heiland said. “A lot of people laugh.”

That list of chucklers would include the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., which, despite badminton’s Olympic status, has yet to provide full scholarship approval for athletes or an NCAA tournament for the sport. So badminton players compete in something called the Collegiate Nationals, a sparsely attended tournament that doesn’t do the participants justice.

“It was sad,” von Heiland said.

Even at the Olympic Festival, adjustments had to be made. For instance, dozens of volunteer judges had to be taught the game’s rules shortly before they took their places on the court. So far, there have been no disagreements. In fact, during Saturday’s matches at the Midwest City High School Sutton Field House, several players complimented the surprised judges on their calls.

Meanwhile, across the Pacific Ocean, the sport flourishes. Asian countries are especially fond of badminton. At the World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, von Heiland found herself in a stadium filled with 50,000 spectators. “Over there, (badminton players are) like kings,” she said.

Over here? Perhaps a few hundred fans found their way to Saturday’s matches.

Too bad, because it’s a fun game to view. That little birdie (officially called a “shuttlecock”) whips through the air faster than any other human-powered projectile, except for a jai-alai ball. Watching a badminton match is like testing your neck for defects, what with the constant swiveling it takes to keep up.

Badminton players aren’t particularly tall or strong or large. You don’t need to bench press your Lady Kenmore to step onto the court, nor do you need to run the 40 in 4.2. Von Heiland, all 5-foot-3 of her, lifts weights and jogs three times a week to prepare for the physical rigors of the game. She also practices the finer points: the serve, the smash, the drop shot, the backhand.

It shows. Von Heiland easily defeated Nancy Narcowich of Hermosa Beach, 11-2, 11-2, in her singles match. Later Saturday, she teamed with Traci Britton of Manhattan Beach to advance to the next round of doubles play. The match complete, Britton ducked under the net to shake hands with their opponents. Von Heiland, obviously thinking about the victory, walked into the net.

That, not badminton, you laugh at.