Olympic Nostalgia, a Snippet from a Badminton Athlete in Trinidad and Tobago
As a former competitive badminton player, I was glued to the t.v. during this year’s Olympic Games. I enjoyed the badminton, tennis, volleyball, track & field, and swimming. Watching the badminton matches especially, evoked a sense of nostalgia because a lot of the players were in my age group. Some I had competed against in the Pan American (PanAm) Games and regional Caribbean tournaments. If I had continued badminton, I’d like to think that I would’ve reached that stage. The Olympics were what I had aimed for in my training years. But I was still really proud of the Olympic players. I knew them from the PanAm region and the Caribbean so it was nice to see that representation. I had stopped training during the coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdowns in Trinidad and Tobago in 2020-2022. Lockdown started about two weeks before my teammates and I were supposed to compete during a national tournament. It was a big year for us and we were training really hard. But suddenly we hea