He is 15 years old, deaf and comes from a family of athletes. This autumn, Möhliner Marvin Müller won gold twice at the Swiss Badminton Championship for the Deaf, in singles and doubles. But it shouldn’t stop there.
Birke Luu
At the age of 15 nobody can expect to become Swiss champions, but for Marvin Müller this success just came true. He has been playing badminton for many years – just like his father, uncle and older brother, who won the bronze medal at the SM. Marvin Müller trains and plays in the Northwestern Switzerland squad, in the Baselland team and is part of the national deaf team.
NFZ: Everyone is special, what exactly is special about you?
Marvin Müller: That I can play badminton at a high level with my hearing impairment. In the Deaf Championships you always have to play without hearing aids, so that you cannot hear the blows and thus cannot assess exactly how strong the blow was and where it is going. But I like to set myself ambitious goals and I’m really happy that I just won the Swiss Championship. In the previous SM, I didn’t even make it to the quarter-finals. But my trainer sees great potential in me because I can implement his instructions quickly.
Why is badminton so important to you?
It offers me distraction from normal life, means full concentration and lets me push my limits. I’ve always been extremely motivated to achieve my goals, and I can do that in badminton. I would say that badminton is the most popular sport among the deaf in Switzerland because it has its own deaf clubs and championships. When I had to choose between tennis and badminton years ago, I chose the latter because I saw badminton as the better sporting opportunities for the future.
You grew up in a family of athletes. How much did that influence you?
A family of athletes is great, there is always a certain amount of competition that you can push through. I am now as good as my two years older brother, so today it depends on the form of the day. My father Daniel used to be the Swiss Deaf Champion and took part in their European Championship, World Cup and Olympic Games. And my uncle Marcel was probably the most successful Swiss deaf player – he was nine times Swiss champion in badminton. That already influences. However, it is also very important to me that my family accompanies me to the tournaments, supports me and is happy about my successes.
What have been your greatest sporting successes so far?
Definitely the victories at this year’s Swiss Championship and then the participation in the World Cup for the Deaf in Taiwan last year. I didn’t win anything there, but it was my biggest tournament so far and very important for my self-assessment and future development. To be in the same tournament with the best players in the world gave me enormous confidence to keep training.
Have you already had major setbacks?
No, no bigger ones. But of course there are always little moments when I get really angry. Once I was angry with myself for a long time because in the last few minutes I lost the game that I had almost won.
How is your life different from that of other teenagers?
I think mainly my weekends are different. I don’t go to parties, smoke or drink like that, I concentrate on sports. Due to my hearing impairment, I observe more and better than others, but I also think longer about decisions because I am not always sure that I have noticed everything. I am considerate and helpful as I know what it is like to need help. I also like to do things for myself and do my sport as a lone fighter because then I only have to rely on myself. And of course my family, which is probably more important to me than other teenagers.
You play badminton with both the deaf and the hearing. What is the biggest difference for you?
The level – and that is by no means meant to be offensive! In the deaf sport we are just a lot less and I am therefore among the best – on the “normal” Swiss ranking, however, I am still very far down, somewhere around 550th place.
At the Deaf Championships everyone knows everyone else, there is a lot of talk and everything is very friendly. Listening tournaments, on the other hand, take place much more frequently, are of a higher, more demanding level and I am 100 percent only focused on the game. Since I usually go with my brother, I feel totally at home there – maybe even better, since it’s more about badminton itself.
How important is badminton to you when planning your future?
At the moment, the most important thing for me is the apprenticeship I have just started to become a geomatics graduate. I want to have done that in four years, but now and then I have to neglect my training a little. But I still have big plans for badminton! For example, I would like to attend the Deaf lympics (Summer Olympics for the Deaf) in Brazil in 2021. My aim is to gain experience in order to progress in sports. Ultimately, I want to achieve my goals as a top athlete, but not as a professional, because that doesn’t exist in deaf sports – and with hearing people, my chances of reaching the top are probably too small. A place on the “normal” ranking among the top 100 in Switzerland would be a sensation for me. My more realistic dream is therefore to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup for the Deaf.
What advice would you give other people, other young people?
You should concentrate on the essentials in life and commit yourself to what you really want to achieve. It’s about having beautiful moments that you can be proud of. For that you have to believe in yourself, that motivates. At least I feel that way. At the Swiss Championship, for example, nobody expected me to win. But I believed in myself, was totally motivated and then played so well that I even won gold twice.
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