The True Story of How Twelve-Year-Old Cordon Left His Family to Follow His Olympic Dream.
K. Cordón Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
At the age of 12, Kevin Cordon uprooted from his rural Guatemalan home to pursue a badminton education that would help him realise his lifelong goal of competing in the Olympics.
Wednesday, inside a massive arena on Tokyo’s outskirts, Cordon felt like all the years of hard advice and struggle had paid off.
“If you want to be a badminton player and make your goal come true, move to the capital city,” Cordon advised. Neither of his parents played the sport.
It was only me; I went there by myself.
The federation claimed there were numerous young people capable of great things, so they relocated us to the capital and promised us education, food, shelter, and training. Because of this, I went.
On the other hand, my mom always gets the last word. “OK, go, but be careful: no drink or drugs,” she said. My family, after 20 years together, is happy than I am.
Cordon’s little hamlet of La Union was four hours east of Guatemala City, so he was bound to stand out from the crowd.
My dad was a football player, and since Kevin Keegan of England was one of the top players in the World Cup when he was a boy, he always stated, “If I have a kid, his name will be Kevin.” As a result, I was given an English name.
“Like you, I aspired to be a footballer, but badminton sort of fell into my lap. My Olympic journey began in Beijing in 2008, and here I am, four years later, enjoying the experience even more than I did the first time around.
And rightfully so: on Wednesday at Musashino Forest Sport Plaza, Cordon won his final group match in the men’s singles competition, defeating No. 8 seed Ng Ka Long Angus in straight sets to go to the round of 16.
After overcoming Mark Caljouw in the round of 16, the 34-year-old is now one win away from clinching Guatemala’s second Olympic medal in the country’s history.
Can you believe I made it to the last four?” he exclaimed after his triumph. Wow, this sensation is incredible. I’m just a kid at heart, enjoying myself by acting my age.
To advance to the last four, the world’s No. 59 will face No. 4 seed Viktor Axelsen in today’s semifinal. Axelsen, who has won eight games in a row without dropping a single set in the Tokyo 2020 tournament, will be his opponent.
The Danish 27-Year-old was Extremely Complimentary of Cordon.
I seriously doubt that anyone predicted Kevin’s success. He has a fascinating backstory, but I intend to put an end to it.
Cordon’s run to the semifinals at Tokyo 2020 has already written the script, even if Axelsen manages to put an end to it.
Can you Explain what an Olympic Certificate is?
Olympic prizes are not limited to medals.
They also give out the illustrious Olympic certificates, which are a form of award for some athletes.
This categorization is an attempt to rank the efforts of those athletes who came near to winning a medal but fell short of the required standard.
Diplomas for Olympic competition have been given out since the London Games of 1948. Then, those who came in fourth, fifth, and sixth places received it.
Since the Los Angeles Games in 1984, the International Olympic Committee has presented medals to the top eight finishers in each event.
It’s a physical certificate that verifies the test taker’s name, the sport they participated in, and their official placement. The organisers’ signatures appear on it as well.
