The badminton I am familiar with is the backyard variety. A net set up in someone’s backyard. Team Middle Aged against Team Perky Youth. The birdie gets hit into trees, over fences, and more often than not gets stuck in someone’s racket.

Olympic badminton is a whole different bird game! This ain’t your backyard badminton. The gold medal match between Indonesia and China was really exciting. It was fast paced. I was amazed at how hard and fast they hit the birdie. It looked more like ping pong. They had several rallies where the birdie was hit 30-40 times in a row. Unbelievable!

It was fun to watch. I must admit I was happy to see Indonesia win, though I have no connections to the country. They hadn’t won a medal yet at these Olympics.  It’s nice to see each country get at least one. They played well and they deserved it.