www.sportseventsmagazine.com
November 2015
29
SPORT Report
t
BY T. WAYNE WATERS
uickly, what's the fastest
recorded object in sports?
Had that question been
asked out of the blue I
doubt one in a thousand
would correctly reply with
"a badminton shuttlecock."
But that's the right answer.
A new world record of a
breathtaking 306.3 miles per hour was set
in 2013 in non-competition circumstances.
The fastest time during competition is an
only slightly less impressive 206.3.
"When you see the top-level badminton
athletes, you see their reaction time to a
shuttlecock fying at over 200 mph, and
you see the way they jump, the way they
move, how fast it all is—it's phenomenal!"
said Dan Cloppas, CEO and secretary
general for USA Badminton, the nation's
badminton governing body. "Badminton
athletes stack up with the best athletes in
the world."
USA Badminton (USAB) is head-
quartered at the United States Olympic
Complex in Colorado Springs, Colo. The
organization sends teams to major interna-
tional tournaments, including the Olympic
Games, in which there are fve Olympic
badminton events: men's singles, women's
singles, men's doubles, women's doubles
and mixed doubles.
U.S. badminton players have been on a
roll, according to Cloppas, especially at the
Pan American Games in Toronto in July
where they won fve events—three gold
and three bronzes—sweeping all of the
doubles events.
"We're ranked as high as we've ever ►
Q
Shuttlecocks
& Speed!
The Future
Looks Bright
For Badminton