Teenage Paralympians aiming for Team USA’s first badminton medal

Sport

Teenage Paralympians aiming for Team USA’s first badminton medal

2024-08-29 21:44 Last Updated At：21:51

PARIS (AP) — Miles Krajewski and Jayci Simon barely spoke throughout the most pivotal points of their Paralympic debut.

Team USA’s mixed doubles para badminton pair offered brief encouragement between points but moved around each other without a word once the shuttlecock was in the air. The 19-year-olds’ chemistry was on full display on Thursday at La Chapelle Arena in northern Paris as they defeated India 23-21, 21-11 to start their pursuit of Paralympic gold.

Krajewski and Simon already made history as the first U.S. badminton Paralympians and are now chasing their country’s first medal in the sport. They need to finish in the top two of their group to advance to the semifinals in the mixed doubles event in the SH6 category for players of short stature.

“Our coach instilled in us that we’re one when we’re out there,” Simon said. “We work together a lot better now, and it definitely has paid off.”

Krajewski and Simon will both compete in men’s and women’s singles competition before facing Thailand to close group play at 8:00 p.m. Thursday in Paris. A win over Thailand would put Team USA among the final four pairs, one win away from securing the historic medal.

“I think we’ve got to carry some of the confidence along with the fire, because they’re also a really good opponent,” Krajewski said. “We need to bring our energy to hopefully come out as No. 1 in the group.”

Krajewski and Simon say winning a medal would further establish para badminton in the U.S.

“It would really help grow the sport in the U.S. because we would have something to back us up well,” Simon said. “I think that it would create more funding and more opportunities to grow the sport. So I’m excited that after the games, whether we win a medal or not, there’s more visibility now, so it will help us advocate.”

Krajewski says he has seen the sport strengthen its foothold in the U.S. in recent years as more Americans have competed alongside him in international tournaments and more para badminton academies appear around the country.

“It’s been incredible just knowing that since I started, it wasn’t very popular, and seeing it start to grow was really nice,” Krajewski said. “Ever since then, if we bring home a medal, hopefully, it will grow at least five times as big.”

Simon did much of her training without any coaching, using a portable net at a local church’s gym in Saint Johns, Michigan. She was forced to research and create her own workouts, rely on her parents to throw her shuttlecocks, and gain playing experience from the local recreational badminton club at Michigan State University. She is studying exercise science and kinesiology at Lansing Community College on top of part-time work as an optometrist.

The duo’s chemistry slowly grew through two years of playing sporadically when they lived in different states. Krajewski and Simon say they finally found nonverbal chemistry this summer training together full-time at Frisco Badminton Academy in Frisco, Texas.

“It was a lot of fun, just knowing that we’ve been training for three months together full-time,” Krajewski said. “Knowing that I can trust her in certain parts and she can trust me and knowing where we’re at without having to tell each other is really nice.”

The connection has been in the making since 2016, when Simon met Krajewski at a Little People of America sports camp. The 11-year-old Simon, who had never heard of badminton, competed against Krajewski in several sports and impressed his father. Krajewski’s father complimented her athleticism, and in an effort to grow the sport, recommended she try para badminton.

Jack Leo is a student in the undergraduate certificate program at the Carmical Sports Media Institute at the University of Georgia.

AP Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games

Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire after saying Hezbollah violated the truce

2024-11-29 00:38 Last Updated At：00:41

BEIRUT (AP) — The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.

There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.

The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah militants are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers.

On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.

The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”

Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.

A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese militant group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.

Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.

More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.

Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.

In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.

Frankel reported from northern Israel. Associated Press writer Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel contributed.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war