He is only 24 years old, but in the world of badminton he is more than a familiar face. Fabio Caponio, born in Santeramo, practices one of the oldest sports in the world and represents one of the greatest sporting excellences of our territory.
For this reason, he could only be our new guest on Favole di Sport, the column in which we get to know better through interviews the greatest sporting excellences of our territory and their world.
Fabio started practicing this sport at a very young age, as we will see later, and has currently achieved very important goals that bring not only the name of Santeramo, his city, but also that of the whole of Italy up high and around the world. who he often represented as an athlete.
Fresh from several podiums in several international tournaments and valid for Olympic qualification: in June he won an international tournament in Chile, bronze medal the following week in the Dominican Republic, then again bronze in Nigeria at the end of August and silver medal in October in Venezuela and gold in Peru; Let’s discover together this new sporting tale of our territory.
Comparing myself with other people I noticed that not everyone knows what badminton is: so what is badminton? What type of sport is it and what are the basic rules?
Badminton is a very ancient sport, born in India and developed in England.
It is a sport that is often compared to tennis, but it has several differences. It is played with a racket similar to a tennis one, 68 cm long and can be made of metal or carbon fiber while its weight can vary from 80 to 140 grams and a shuttlecock made of cork and goose feathers. It has 5 disciplines: men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
The “game” consists of keeping the shuttlecock in the air as much as possible over a net that separates the two halves of the court without letting it fall. The aim is to try to score a point in the opponent’s court or cause his mistake (the shuttle must touch the ground or the opponent must make a mistake to lose the point).
It is the fastest sport in the world. The speed record achieved by the flywheel is 493km/h.
Two sets out of three are played to 21 points, if a situation of 20-20 is reached, the game continues with a gap of 2 points up to a maximum of 30.
How did you discover it, at what age and when did you start practicing it? So how did you start practicing it, are there adequate structures in the area?
I started playing badminton thanks to my maternal grandparents and my cousin. He himself practiced it before me.
One day my grandparents had to pick him up from training and I decided to accompany them. I was 7 years old when I saw this sport for the first time in my town (Santeramo in Colle) so different from those we see every day on TV or in the newspapers. I immediately fell in love with it and decided to try it a few days later, from then on it was love and passion until today.
Fortunately, at that time, there was an excellent club in my country, Polisportiva Santeramo, which allowed me to improve over time and get me into the Italian national team.
To date, unfortunately, the structures in the south are few and the sport is not practiced too much, while in the north of Italy it is more widespread and the presence of adequate structures is also greater.
Also a bit in reference to the previous question, I’m also interested in knowing how to participate in tournaments. Are there invitations? As in tennis is it subject to registration? Is there a general ranking?
To participate in national and international tournaments you must register, there are no invitations. There is a national and world ranking which obviously is based on the results that a player achieves in the tournaments in which he enters.
Tournaments have different difficulties/levels, just like tennis. Clearly the player will be able to register for a specific tournament based on his ranking.
In your, however intense, career, what has this sport taught you? How has it helped you in your daily life?
I would say that in general sport has taught me several things, including sacrifice, which was the basis of my story, given that I had to leave home and my family at the age of 12 in order to pursue my dreams, moving in Milan; it allowed me and allows me to get to know different cultures and therefore appreciate the various facets of each of them. I was able to travel around much of the world and observe the various beauties that it “offers”.
He taught me what discipline, respect and determination mean, all values that will certainly allow me to relate in the best possible way in the future working world.
All this helped me to see everyday life in a different way, such as: “appreciate what life has given me and how lucky I am to be able to do what I like without any kind of problem”.
What advice do you give to those who don’t know this sport, to those who don’t practice it and to those who would like to practice it, to become or play a badminton champion?
I don’t have any magic phrases to try to get as many kids as possible to practice this sport, but I definitely have some words to convey: “once you start practicing badminton it’s difficult to leave it, because it’s love at first sight, difficult to let go.” Street”.
One piece of advice I can give is that there are no secrets in becoming champions, but only a lot of work, sacrifice and love in what you do.
Photos taken from Fabio Caponio’s Instagram profile
We thank Fabio for the time spent with us, among the various commitments that an athlete of his level must manage around the world. We wish you the best for the future, hoping he can still reserve as many joys for you in badminton as in life.
For this episode of Favole di Sport, the column of the sporting excellences of our territory is everything, thanks to the readers and see you in the next episode.
2023-11-07 11:22:08
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