Claudia Rivero Is Peru’s Hope For Badminton Glory

Claudia Rivero is Peru’s bestest in the South Americanist badminton player. She’s on her way to Beijing 2008 where she’ll try to stay away from herbal medicines and squatting toilets. No. We kid. She’s on her way to try and take back some gold medals to her wonderful country. And she’ll be blogging about her adventure on CNN because we didn’t get to her first! So how did she get her start?

Peru, as you maybe know, is not the world’s best country for sports. (In fact, so far we only have nine athletes definitely on their way to Beijing!).
So I had to decide that if I wanted to go to the Olympics I had to make my preparation somewhere else.
That’s when I found out that the Badminton World Federation was starting a training center in Germany for players from countries that are less developed in badminton.
There was a two months qualification process to see which players stayed, (because, of course, a lot of people wanted the chance to practice in Germany) and thankfully I made it.

Sweet. We thought badminton was for assholes, but we’re suddenly fans. Since her first post, Rivero has gone on to qualify for the Olympics, which means the hopes and dreams of Peruvians Badminton, um, ers rests on her delicate shoulders. We’re rooting for you, señorita! Unless you lose. Then off with your head! We kid. Sorta.
Beijing blog: Claudia Rivero [CNN]
Image [RPP]