Deaflympic Badminton for Naperville Siblings
Two Naperville siblings are going for the gold in Brazil as part of the Deaflympics. Judy and Jay Yang will travel to Caxias do Sul to represent the United States of America in Badminton. The sport will be part of the Deaflympics for the tenth time but this is the first time a team from the United States s of America competes. The Yang siblings and all the other members of the USA Deaflympic badminton team practice at the Midwest Badminton Club. The club was founded by Judy and Jay’s aunt and uncle and they both began playing at a young age.
The siblings are honored to be a part of the first USA Deaflympic Badminton team. Judy communicated, “For me, I’ve always looked at the Olympics and wanted to be a part of it and I thought, “Oh that’s never gonna happen for me.” This is the first [USA] deaf Badminton team going to Brazil, and I’m a part of that! So I’m absolutely thrilled that dream came true…”
While playing the same sport as your sibling at such a high level can cause friction the siblings also push each other to continually improve. Judy said, “We like both playing alone and as a team. We do play singles. I usually beat him and then he gets angry at me, and then if he beats me I get angry at him so we’re very competitive that way. My family is extremely competitive, it’s just the way we were brought up. But it’s nice to have my brother, both of us being deaf as a family to have someone in the badminton community who supports me, knows me, knows what we’re going through so a little bit of both.”
Jay agreed, “When we do play together if she misses or I miss we get angry with each other. But we support each other all the way around.”
For NCTV17’s Sports Story, Alex Campbell reporting.
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