Badminton
VIVEK PRAKASH / REUTERS
Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat returns a shot to Denmark's Peter Gade during a men's singles match at the Singapore Open Badminton Super Series 2007
For your information, Taufik Hidayat is a stud. The spiky-haired shuttler — yup, that’s what badminton players are often called — with a 200-km-an-hour backhand smash is a pin-up hero in Indonesia, adored for his 2004 Olympic gold medal in the men’s singles event. (Badminton remains the only Olympic sport in which the country of 230 million has ever struck gold.) Taufik hopes to win again in Beijing. But even if he does succeed, the Southeast Asian nation is in danger of being eclipsed by China, which in Athens won three badminton golds to Indonesia’s one.
Next: Shooting
Related Topics: Badminton,
sports Shooting
FILIP HORVAT / AP
Du Li of China, right, and Katarina Kurkova of Czech Republic, left, take aim during a women's air rifle competition at the ISSF World Shooting Championship in Zagreb, Croatia, in July 2006
The sport has come a long way since Paris 1900, when live pigeons were used as targets, or Antwerp 1920, when a 72-year-old Swede medaled. For those of you who don’t know your skeet from your trap, shooting is an Olympic gold mine for Team China. In fact, the first gold medal the People’s Republic ever won came courtesy of Xu Haifeng, a marksman at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. In Athens, China’s sharpshooters won four golds, more than any other nation. This time around, the People’s Republic’s first gold of the Games could very well come from Du Li, a word-recordholder who will likely be competing in the women’s 10-m air rifle final in day 2 of the Beijing Olympics.
Next: Men's Hockey
Related Topics: shooting,
sports
