(26 July 1996; Day 07)
While Great Britain's mixed doubles badminton team of Nick PONTING and Joanne WRIGHT went down in history, the country's top team of Simon ARCHER and Julie BRADBURY just went down.
PONTING and WRIGHT made Olympic history, becoming the first winners ever in an Olympic mixed-gender sport. Yachting is the only other Olympic sport in which teams may consist of both men and women, but the teams do not have to as they do in badminton's mixed doubles.
"It's great to be making history," said WRIGHT. "We always seem to be in the right place at the right time."
The win was not an easy one for PONTING and WRIGHT. They played a tough 15-10, 18-14 match against Germany's Michael KECK and Karen STECHMANN. The teams were playing evenly in errors, serves and shots throughout the match.
"We always knew it was going to be tough," WRIGHT said. "We played KECK and Karen a few times, and it's always been hard. The second set was closer because KECK moved away from conventional mixed and started rushing the net, so they got a few quick points."
It was not an unexpected victory, as PONTING and WRIGHT were eighth in the IBF's latest rankings, though not seeded in the Olympic tournament. KECK and STECHMANN were not far behind, ranking 12th.
However, ARCHER and BRADBURY were expected to win. They make up Great Britain's top mixed doubles team, seeded sixth in the Olympic tournament. They placed third in the world in July's IBF rankings. Then Indonesia's team of Nimpele FLANDY and Rosalina RISEU, ranked 13th, came along and defeated them handily, 15-5, 15-6.
Uncharacteristic errors ended ARCHER and BRADBURY's Olympic hopes in mixed doubles. They committed 21 errors in each game of the match, while forcing a total of just 25. The Indonesian team also monopolized the serve, not giving up side-outs easily. The serve changed hands only 10 times in the first game and 17 in the second game.
Both ARCHER and BRADBURY are still in the running for same-gender doubles, ARCHER paired with Chris HUNT and BRADBURY paired with WRIGHT.
This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department. Written by Deana A.G. Monahan.
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| More tickets were sold to the competitions of the 1996 Games than to any other Olympic Games or sports event in history. The 8.6 million ticket sales figures topped sales to the Los Angeles and Barcelona Games combined. |