By Dat Winning
Howard Shu may have gotten most of the buzz coming into the 2016 Rio Olympics, getting shine in Esquire, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, even getting some love in this Buzzfeed thing on hot Olympians with Instagram accounts.
Shu, who competes in men’s singles, has become the de facto spokesperson for USA badminton, and the fact that he is Asian American hasn’t been lost on anyone in his coverage, but he isn’t the only player of Asian descent on the squad. They’re all Asian American.
Shu is the nation’s top-ranked men’s singles player, ranked no. 67 in the world. He lost his first match in group play to the world no. 9, Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto. He will play Cuba’s Osleni Guerrero (no. 62) at 10:20 EST.
Iris Wang is currently 2-0 in group play in women’s singles. Sattawat Pongnairat and Phillip Chew make up the men’s doubles team, Eva Lee and Paula Lynn Obanana, women’s doubles, and Phillip Chew and Jamie Subandhi will rep in mixed doubles.
Team USA has bios and Q&As up on the team website here.
The team will continue group play on Saturday morning. All matches can be watched via live stream here.
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