GUATEMALA CITY // In a football-mad nation of Spanish-speakers like Guatemala, it is hard for people to even pronounce badminton, much less take an interest in a sport more associated with Asia than the Americas.
So hats off to Kevin Cordon — reportedly named after English former footballer Kevin Keegan — who has been playing since he was 11 and has surged to No 49 in the badminton world rankings.
He has enjoyed international success, winning the Pan Am singles championship twice in a row, also competing in the Beijing and London Olympics, and will proudly represent his Central American nation in Rio de Janeiro come August.
And to think all of this almost did not happen.
“I got to know badminton by accident,” Cordon, 29, said before a session at the Olympic training village in Guatemala City.
Badminton buffs in his town of La Union, in eastern Guatemala, put on an exhibition at his and other schools, and Cordon was smitten.
“I went, and I started to play,” Cordon said. “I began to practice, and three months later I had won my first tournament.”
Over the past decade, as Cordon’s trophy case filled, mainly thanks to championships in the Americas, the Guatemalan press began to notice and cover him closely.
Normally, it only has eyes for football — hence why his father reportedly named him after Keegan.
“My whole family loved football. As an adult I kept playing, but when I saw that badminton was opening doors for me, and in order to avoid injury, I decided to dedicate myself to it,” Cordon said.
Luis Barrios, a sports analyst with the digital daily Soy502, said Cordon had made a dent in Guatemalans’ football obsession and opened up some room for racquets and shuttlecocks.
“Before Kevin, badminton was not widely played or well known in Guatemala, although it is present in some areas,” Barrios said.
Jose Maria Solis, Cordon’s coach since he was 16, said Cordon has inspired more young people to play badminton in Guatemala.
Cordon won gold at the Pan Am games in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2011, then defended his title in Toronto in 2015. At London 2012, he went out in the knockout rounds, but his two wins to get there were the first by a Guatemalan in the sport at any Olympics.
Solis urged authorities in Guatemala, a poor country wracked by gang and drug violence, to earmark more money for sports federations, which are starting to make a name — albeit a small one — on the world stage.
One sport in which this is happening is racewalking. Erick Barrondo won silver at the London games — the only Olympic medal Guatemala has ever earned.
“For us it is very clear that sports such as badminton, racewalking, gymnastics and others are doing a lot for Guatemala, and it is a matter of raising awareness to give them more support,” said coach Solis.
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