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Two debutants who will compete for Australia in the second installment of Badminton at a Paralympic Games say their stunning rise in the sport has given them the confidence to dream big and excel in the moment in Paris.
Mischa Ginns picked up a badminton racket at a ‘come and try’ event in Melbourne a little over two years ago, which unbeknown to her at the time was a life-changing moment.
Since then, she has won three gold medals at the 2022 Oceania Para-badminton Championships – in the WH2 women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles – recorded a quarter final finish at the World Cup earlier this year, and now goes into the Paris Paralympics with an eighth placed world ranking in her classification.
Joining her is 27-year-old Celine Vinot, who discovered the sport after she finished high school in 2014 and has “never looked back”.
Vinot has won a silver and bronze medal at the regional 2020 Oceania Championships and has recorded many encouraging results further afield.
“There’s still a lot of work that can be done, but I think I’ve done a lot in the last 18 months in the lead up to [the Paralympics], travelling so often to get to qualifying tournaments…but in the lead up, it’s been really, really good,” she said.
While Paris is thousands of kilometres away from her home in Victoria, Vinot is no stranger to France, given her family hails from the country and is fluent in French.
“It’s kind of like being in front of a home crowd,” she said.
“I’ve got a lot of family coming in to watch, so that’ll be super exciting.”
The round robin format at this year’s Games will be staged at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena from August 29 to September 2. The arena has the capacity to hold more than six thousand spectators.
It is set to give the tournament an atmosphere that is in stark contrast to the inaugural badminton event in Tokyo 2020 where crowds were kept away from the Covid-affected Games.
For coach Ian Bridge, who has been recognised with awards for his dedication to developing Para-badminton in Australia, this moment is incredibly satisfying.
“Internationally, [the sport] has come on in leaps and bounds. We have lots of new countries from Africa and the Middle East now that are participating and producing good players, which is great,” he said.
“For us in Australia, that means we’ve got to up our game.”
Watch the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on the 9Network and 9Now live and free, and on Stan Sport from August 28 to September 8.
By: Laurie Lawira, Paralympics Australia
Published: 27 August 20204
