It is not often that siblings qualify for Olympic badminton together — and even less common that two pairs of siblings play each other in a women’s doubles match.
Identical twins Annie and Kerry Xu of the US yesterday battled it out with Bulgarian sisters Stefani and Gabriela Stoeva at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena in Paris.
The Stoevas, who are playing in their third Olympics, won the group-stage match 21-18, 21-12, having to push harder in the second game after the rush of winning the first.
Photo: Reuters
For both pairs, the experience was surreal.
“It was interesting because people are already surprised when they see twins competing at the Olympics together. To be able to play against someone else who has gone through a similar path, a pretty unique path, is very interesting,” Annie Xu, 24, said.
“I spend so much time with her that whenever I look at her I can kind of tell what she’s feeling — like if she’s nervous I know if I need to cheer her up,” she said.
Kerry Xu, who said the pair had started badminton at the same time when they were children, added that being sisters helped them to execute their strategies better because they spent all their time together and could pivot quickly.
“I think sharing this moment at the Olympics with your sister — I cannot describe with others how that is,” Stefani Stoeva, 28, said. “I think they feel the same.”
In an interview with all four together, Gabriela Stoeva and Annie Xu said both pairs had experienced similar moments on court, such as squabbling with each other and being scolded by their parents for doing so in front of the television cameras, only for them to quickly make up without uttering a word.
“When we were young you could see it on our faces and then our parents called us and said: ‘Why are you fighting on camera?’” said 30-year-old Gabriela Stoeva, who was sporting Olympic-themed nails that matched her sister’s.
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