Getting Here Makes Badminton a Joy

Ms. Kitzmiller’s math class met weekdays at a high school in East L.A., where each morning bell began a new adventure. There were the overcrowded, 40-or-more classrooms before which a teacher had to stand and deliver, the unwelcome 4% slash in pay, the baleful stare-down from the occasional bad-news dude seated at a back-row desk and the eager eyes of the attentive pupils in front who were ready, willing and able to learn.

Joy Kitzmiller hated to quit.

“I adore teaching,” she said.

There are not many chances in life, though, for someone to find herself rubbing elbows with basketball big shot Magic Johnson at an Olympic opening ceremony, or shooting the breeze with tennis champion Jim Courier in an athletes-only commune, or stealing a glance at volleyball player Steve Timmons as he attempts to conceal his newly bald skull under a cap.

And maybe the best thing is that Johnson, Courier and Timmons never so much as snicker or smile when they inquire of Kitzmiller: “What brings you here?” When they discover that she is a badminton player, there are no cracks about birdies or shuttlecocks or bringing along a cooler of brew and a Frisbee to play at a picnic.

“You never hear an athlete making fun of another athlete,” Kitzmiller said. “They don’t care what your sport is. They know what it takes to compete.”

Sacrifice, for one thing. Kitzmiller, 28, of Manhattan Beach, was not particularly pleased about having to give up her Garfield High teaching job in the spring of 1990, because she missed the meager income as well as the teaching itself. For a badminton player to dedicate herself, to travel to tournaments worldwide and to train at the Olympic education center in Marquette, Mich., takes money. And no one comes around waving fistfuls of dollars at badminton players.

“Frankly, I’m broke,” Kitzmiller said.

She does have a sponsorship deal with an equipment manufacturer, but that’s about it. Kitzmiller is not a superstar in her field; she is ranked 100th on the button in women’s singles. She did, however, win the 1991 U.S. singles championship, and, with Linda French, a University of San Diego law student, also won the national doubles crown, her third in three years.

And cashing in through performance for Kitzmiller is no easier. This is not exactly tennis.

“There’s an All-England tournament where the top prize is something like 6,500 pounds (about $10,000). But that’s about it,” she said.

Such rewards are more likely to go to the likes of Susy Susanti, the Chris Evert of Indonesia. Ranked No. 1 by the game’s international federation, Susanti, 21, is the player to beat here in women’s singles, one who is graceful and workmanlike efficient in the Evert fashion, Kitzmiller said, specializing not so much in power as in keeping the point in play and wearing down the opponent.

Her parents’ membership at the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club drew Kitzmiller to the sport when she was 8. Twenty years later, Ruth and Ed Kitzmiller traveled 8,000 miles to see their daughter in the Olympics, and they were at the Pavello de La Mar Bella pavilion Wednesday whenJoy became acquainted with a young member of the Bangpo Badminton Club of Bangkok, one Somharuthai Jaroensiri, who went for the Thai and came away with the victory, 11-3, 11-0.

Doubles will be more to Kitzmiller’s speed, but the experience itself is what she will take home with her, even the part where she was batted around like a shuttlecock at the opening ceremony by athletes in every kind of uniform and costume.

“I got knocked over by guys wearing bedsheets, “ she said.

Call it a learning experience.