OP-ED: HOW TO GET BADMINTON ON AMERICAN BROADCAST TV
(A Lesson from the Philippines)

August 19, 1996 (D.Shuttlenws) - While we were sitting idly on the
weekend, still moaning and groaning about the peacock network ignoring
the sport we love during the Olympic Games in Atlanta, a friend called us
to say he had received a tape from Asia with all sorts of Olympic
badminton goodies from Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.

Lucky fellow, we thought. And lucky Malaysians, Indonesians, Japanese
and Pilipinos.

Wait a minute. Isn't there something wrong with that statement?

Pilipinos and badminton? That didn't sound right.

Aren't they a basketball-crazy country? Every Pilipino I had met was a
basketball player of one sort or another. Not tall enough to dunk, most
of them, but great with the dribble and jumpshot.

But none of them play badminton. No Pilipinos among the top world
players, either.

They did manage to squeeze one woman player into Atlanta. A lady named
Amparo Lim. Number 65 in women's singles.

Maybe that was it. They had a player in the Olympics.

But we (the U.S.A.) had three players - Kevin Han, Linda French and
Erica von Heiland.

We had more players than the Pilipinos did but they saw more
badminton.

In wonderment, we called a Pilipino friend and asked how they could
get Olympic badminton on TV. He did not know but he said he would ask
around.

He called back this morning and had the answer.

The President of the Philippines plays badminton (he learned to play it
at West Point, of all places).

And the badminton association in the Philippines elected his wife, their
First Lady, the association president.

EUREKA!!!

Now, if we could find someone who knows Bill Clinton or Hillary or
Chelsea, maybe we can get badminton some air time.

Hmmm. Or maybe Bob Dole or Jack Kemp.

Hmmm. It is presidential election time. Maybe they want our vote.

Hmmmm.

(Our apologies to Pilipino badminton players. They do exist, we are
told, and they count among their numbers Erica von Heiland, twice a
badminton Olympian for the U.S.A. and Perry de Guzman, once a U.S.
national masters champion).

COPYRIGHT 1996 by d.shuttlenws@genie.com.

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