Home World Tour Shuttlers Annie Xu and her identical twin sister’s unique Olympic qualification journey

Annie Xu and her identical twin sister’s unique Olympic qualification journey

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Annie Xu and her twin sister Kerry Xu represent Team USA Badminton. They both ditched badminton in favor of college and jobs. But then something happened… Watch the video to get the complete story

Annie Xu and Kerry Xu talk about their badminton journey

Annie Xu and Kerry Xu decided to follow the dream

The Xu sisters were born in San Jose, California in October 1999. They started playing badminton at the age of 8 and by the age of 12, they were winning USA National titles in badminton.

Talented and hard-working, they were selected for the USA Junior Badminton Team.

While still competing in singles, the Xu’s were paired in doubles. At the Pan Am Junior Championships in 2014 and again in 2015, the twins secured the gold medal.

As seniors, Annie Xu and Kerry Xu competed internationally. They were part of the USA Uber Cup team in 2016 when they were only around 17 years old.

They did reasonably well in that period winning medals in International Series Level tournaments in 2017 and 2018. In 2019 they only played the Silicon Valley International Series, which they won.

Following that they decided to focus on their education and retire from international badminton. After graduation from UC Berkeley (in California), they both got jobs.

But then, in 2022, they started entertaining the idea of getting back into badminton to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Annie Xu and Kerry Xu badminton players from USA — Annie Xu and Kerry Xu in Paris

The Road to the Paris Olympics is long and costly – here’s how you can help Annie and Kerry Xu

It might come as a shock to you 🙂 But most badminton players struggle to make ends meet. This is especially true for up-and-coming players such as the Xu sisters.

Kerry Xu has set up a GoFundMe page. The girls are trying to raise USD 20.000. If you can spare a few dollars, please go and show your support

If you care about the future of badminton, you will understand that we cannot allow financial shortcomings to stand in the way of player development.

What’s more, badminton in the USA truly represents amazing potential for our beloved sport. Making badminton great again in the USA – will help badminton as a whole.