Promoting Badminton in His Own Backyard By Dan Arritt, Times Staff Writer The slight, well-dressed man in his 60s had a wider smile than usual Sunday night at the Arrowhead Pond. Watching Tony Gunawan and Howard Bach win the men's doubles title at the International Badminton Federation World Championships was like a dream come true for Don Chew. After winning the opening game, 15-11, and losing the second, 10-15, Gunawan and Bach rallied from an 11-9 deficit in the deciding game and defeated the Indonesian team of Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto, 15-11, to complete a historic week for American badminton. "Nine years ago, I wanted to bring the U.S. to this level," Chew said. "Now, we're in the picture." No American badminton player had won a medal in Olympic or world championship competition before this week, and Gunawan and Bach said they'd still be empty handed if not for the support of Chew. "He sacrificed a lot for badminton," Gunawan said before the championship match. "There's no way we'd be where we are without him." It was Chew who invested a big chunk of his family's small fortune to build the Orange County Badminton Club in Orange. The world-class facility, which opened in 1996, quickly began luring top players from the U.S. and other parts of the world. Bach, 26, moved from San Francisco to Orange five years ago to train at the facility. Gunawan, 30, left his native Indonesia in 2002, two years after winning a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics. When Gunawan was first introduced to Chew, he was not only offered a coaching job at the center, but free room and board until he and his wife, Eti, could secure a place of their own...http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-badminton22aug22,1,4424288.story?coll=la-headlines-sports
aaahhh... the american dream. an accomplished athlete leaving his home country for a better life, ending up winning the world championship for his adopted country. isn't life great for tony?
