Beiwen Zhang battles to preserve badminton dream alive amid financial problems and lack of schooling

Randy Montgomery February 10, 2024

74 2 minutes read

“I can’t afford my coach traveling with me,” says India Open protecting champion Zhang Beiwen, who needed to switch her nationality twice to pursue her badminton goals. Zhang firstly hails from Liaoning, China, but modified nationality to grow to be a Singaporean at the age of thirteen and win a crew bronze on the 2009 Southeast Asian Games. After a fallout with Singapore authorities, she followed US nationality in 2013 and played for that u . S . A. In international circuit ever because. However, she said she has now not got any help from the United States countrywide badminton federation and has to rely on self-funding and prize money from competitions.

“I actually have simply one sponsor from Hong Kong who can pay for my instruct’s earnings,” said Zhang, who’s currently ranked 12 in the global. She was in the top-10 ultimate 12 months. The 28-year-old, who needed to crowd-fund her ride to World Championship for 12 months, stated she no longer gets sufficient schooling in the US, wherein badminton is not a massive sport. “The pleasant choice for me is schooling in Singapore; however, on occasion, I am out of preference. I don’t get time to educate tons, can be I educate for one and 1/2 hour every day after I am in Singapore and every now and then even less.”

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Though there has been a considerable quantity of shuttlers from the US collaborating at the India Open here, she nonetheless does now not have anybody who can offer her a recording of her suits.

“We are from distinctive cities; we don’t teach together. That is why. But as a US professional, it is ideal for me; it’s far like you may do anything you want so long as you push yourself difficult,” she stated. Despite all of the constraints, Zhang has done reasonably nicely-remaining 12 months by triumphing the India Open, a World Tour Super 500 occasion, reaching the finals at the Korea Open and US Open. She also qualified for the World Tour Finals. This year but Zhang needed to cope with a viral infection which affected her overall performance. “I have been on an excursion because December and, in fact, was very sick earlier than the German Open. I had a plague infection and was coughing truely hard. After German Open, I was sick again, so I even have misplaced a whole lot of weight,” she said.

So what is her expectation from the match ?“Last yr I become in the same scenario. When I got here to this event, I didn’t anticipate lots from myself. I don’t assume I can go to the final and guard the identity as women’s singles are so competitive,” Zhang signed off.