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Olympic Games: Kevin Cordn’s miracle: lead Guatemala to fight for bronze – Marseille News

Updated on 01/01/2021 – 16:49

“I’m just having fun. It’s an honor to play here with all these good players, who you only see on the Internet. And when you have the opportunity to play with them, it really feels good. ” Kevin Cordn (Guatemala, 1986). The Guatemalan, world number 59, has become the sensation of the men’s badminton team.

Cordon entered the semifinals after beating shameful South Korean Heo Kwang-hee as No.1 Kento Momota. For the first time, a Latin American athlete has reached the fight for the medals. It wasn’t the only feat in Guatemala: Luis Martnez swims the 100-meter butterfly final. He was the first Central American among the top eight in an Olympic swimming event.

Dan Andersen, second in the world rankings and third in Ro 2016, stopped his way for gold. Cordn is now fighting for bronze against Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, fifth in the world. “I’m close to a medal, but I don’t think about it, because I don’t want my mind to be like this, because otherwise my legs will not work and above all I will not enjoy the game and I think that was the key to these games: to enjoy every point, ”he said after losing to Andersen.

Guatemala has vibrated these days with Cordón. His medal options have always been on Erick Barrondo, who looks to Tokyo to step on the podium like he did in London 2012 (it was silver, the only Olympic metal in history for Guatemala). “We come from a continent where badminton is not known. It’s very difficult to train, it’s difficult to play tournaments. That is why there is this union of all Latinos right now, because we realize that no matter what country we come from or what boundaries the Latino player has talent, ”Cordón said.

the The 34-year-old Guatemalan is playing his fourth Games. Debut in Beijing 08. The bad experience of the Rio Games has been lifted. He was injured in his first game. He lost and was then forced to withdraw from the tournament.

Like almost all children, his connection to sport came from football. The name was already leading him to the ball. His father chose Kevin because he was a fan of English footballer Kevin Keegan. Cordon wanted to be an Olympian. “In football it would be impossible for me, in badminton I saw that I would have my chances,” he recalls.

He started playing at the age of 11. National and regional champion was proclaimed. International tournaments and concentrations in Europe have arrived. In 2006, he won gold at the Central American and Caribbean Games. The following year, the silver medal was suspended from the Pan American Games. “It’s hard to train. My friends are helping me. Most of my training is three on one, ”he says.

In Beijing I witness Kenneth Erichsen, badminton Olympian for Guatemala in Atlanta 96, and Pedro Yang (Athens 2004). In London, he was the standard bearer. He won the first victory for a player from his country in an Olympic tournament. He fell in eighth.

In 2013, he suffered a hard blow: the death of his brother Marvin at age 26 in a car accident. Since then, every time he wins a match, he kneels on the court and points his fingers up to the sky. He has also recovered from a serious knee injury that almost led to his retirement after the Ro Games. In 2017, he joined again the Indonesian coach Muamar Gadhafi with whom he came to fight for bronze in Tokyo.

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