The 2024 Paris Olympics gave fans plenty of moments to remember: thrilling finishes, world records, and an iconic backdrop. On top of that, the badminton court produced a special piece of Aragon history. Class of 2021 Aragon graduate Joshua Yuan competed in men’s doubles badminton at this summer’s Olympic Games, becoming the first Aragon athlete to become an Olympian.
Joshua Yuan and doubles partner Vinson Chiu, ranked world number 42, were placed in Group D. They didn’t win any of their four group stage matches and didn’t advance further in the tournament since all four opponents in their group were ranked top 10 in the world.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t make it out of the group stage and we lost all of [our matches],” Yuan said. “But I’m still very happy with the way we played. I think we did play our best. We did give them a hard time, and we put on a show. I can’t say I’m satisfied with my results obviously, but I’m satisfied with the way we played and the way we stuck with them.”
Badminton didn’t get much airtime on television during the Olympics, as the sport is much more popular in Asian and European countries than the United States. However, Yuan still felt immense support from both American and international fans at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena.
“We played in sold out arenas every day of eight to nine thousand people,” Yuan said. “The arena really embodied the Olympic spirit of all the different international fans cheering for their countries and supporting their players playing. The fans were very into all the matches, and you could just hear your name being chanted, or you could hear the live reactions to a trick shot.”
In their first match against the world number 2 pair from Denmark, Yuan and Chiu lost 21-13, 21-16. However, they led in the second game by 5 points, giving their opponents a scare as the heavy underdogs.
“In the second game, we were actually leading for a majority of the match,” Yuan said. “I remember this one rally where it was a very long rally, and then [the opponent] smashed it, hitting the shuttle, really hard, really fast down. Then I did a cross defense, which caught both of them off guard, and hit into an empty corner. The crowd was going wild because the USA is not very strong, and they’re like ‘Wow. These guys are really strong.’”
In addition to competing for the first week, Yuan also participated in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and got to experience Paris and the Olympic Village. He even met his childhood idols, taking pictures and chatting with basketball superstars Lebron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant on the boat at the Opening Ceremony.
“Standing next to them as teammates rather than a fan is still pretty crazy to me,” Yuan said.
Out of all his interactions with world-class athletes, he remembers unknowingly interacting with Indian javelin gold medalist Neeraj Chopra the most.
“I’m in the gym and I’m working out and there was this Indian athlete that came to work, doing the same machine as me,” Yuan said. “Obviously we got some small talk, … he just told me he did javelin. And then after we parted ways, I searched him up because [I wanted to know] who did I just interact with? I see on Instagram he has 9.1 million followers. I’m like, did I just have a casual conversation with basically a superstar in their country?”
All of these experiences at the Olympics are still processing in Yuan’s mind weeks after leaving Paris. Currently 21 years old, he plans to finish his studies at UC Berkeley as an economics major and begin the qualification process for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. His goal is to keep on improving and win the first Olympic medal for the United States in badminton, one of just five sports that the U.S. has never medaled in.
Yuan began playing badminton when he was eight years old. He had lived in Foster City for his entire life before moving to Hillsborough last year.
“At a very young age, he tried all kinds of sports, like basketball, soccer, baseball, taekwondo and tennis,” said Yuan’s mother Janet Jin. “He was always into sports, and of course, badminton was always his main sport. Through elementary school and middle school, there weren’t any badminton teams in school, so he played in his club, and then he competed all the time internationally as well as locally.”
Yuan represented Aragon in competition in his freshman and sophomore years, showing strong potential for future success.
“At 14, he’s beating the seniors in the whole area and really with not a lot of effort.”
“My most memorable memory is playing CCS with my doubles partner,” Yuan said. “We ended up getting fifth place, but because he was less experienced, … even just getting to that fifth place was a huge accomplishment for us because our competition was filled with athletes like myself that play outside of school. Being able to help bring him there, with the support of Ms. Brown, who went with us to all these big tournaments, who helped coach us, made me realize that it’s not just the individual effort.”
Former badminton head coach and current PE teacher Linda Brown saw Yuan’s special talents up close during his time on the team.
“When he would come in and he would play opponents, there was really no one that could really touch him until he went to CCS and the competition was much higher,” Brown said. “He’s just an amazing badminton player. At 14, he’s beating the seniors in the whole area and really with not a lot of effort. So he knew that he was somebody who was pretty special, and that had the opportunity, if he kept pursuing this passion, to be really successful.”
Even with all his individual dominance, Yuan stepped up in a leadership role to help other players on the team develop their skills. Brown and assistant coach Erwin Sarmiento helped Yuan pass his skills to younger players.
“He was able to help with strategy, so when kids are playing, [he would say] you need to be going to this person’s backhand,” Brown said. “It’s a lot of technique, because he was already at a much higher technique than I was at coaching.”
Graduating from Aragon in 2021, Yuan moved onto UC Berkeley to continue studying and playing badminton. Although there are no NCAA college badminton leagues, Yuan joined the Cal Badminton Club, where he met his Olympic doubles partner Vinson Chiu.
“I took my first two years at Berkeley in person,” Yuan said. “I was still training consistently throughout the week while going to school, and it was at that club where I met my partner. … We were already the two best U.S. doubles players, so it only made sense to play together.”
Yuan made the decision to continue playing badminton in college and pursue a professional career. This transition required more maturity and responsibility on the part of Yuan to manage college and training.
“He really had to be more independent if he wanted to continue. He couldn’t really rely on us too much anymore,” Jin said. “We saw him go into more independent planning. … If he wanted to do training, he had to carve out that time, as just the commute was about three hours a day to go to training. ”
As a full-time student-athlete at Cal, Yuan had to sacrifice many aspects of college life that other students might get to experience in order to train.
“I was still training every day. I had to sacrifice a lot of free time just hanging out with friends, going to activities or going to parties,” Yuan said. “It did definitely get hard because it was a whole year and there were times where I wanted to take a break. … It’s just exhausting, but it’s because I was fueled by my passion to always be the best that I could be in badminton. I make those sacrifices, I make time, and I manage my time well in order to do it.”
“You have to just move on and go to the next place. There could be two or three tournaments where you don’t win a single match, and so I had to get over that and keep going because it’s a whole year-long process.”
To pursue Olympic qualification, Yuan took a gap year this past school year. The Olympic qualification schedule was very demanding, with over 25 tournaments around the world in a year and around one every other week.
“While it was definitely fun to be going to all these different countries, meeting new people and cultures and playing the sport that I’m so passionate about, there are also many low moments,” Yuan said. “It’s exhausting just being on the road and not having a place to call your home, constantly having to travel, and constantly having to pack.”
Beyond the fatigue of travel, there were also significant mental obstacles that Yuan had to overcome throughout the year.
“There’s also the mental low of not performing well in this one tournament,” Yuan said. “You have to just move on and go to the next place. There could be two or three tournaments where you don’t win a single match, and so I had to get over that and keep going because it’s a whole year-long process. It was definitely the most challenging year, both physically and mentally.”
All the hard work throughout the year culminated in one shot at qualifying for the Olympics: the 2024 Pan-Am Championships in Guatemala this April. Yuan and Chiu had to make it to the semifinal round of the tournament in order to attain the necessary world ranking to qualify for the Olympics.
“Knowing [the stakes] beforehand, you feel so much pressure,” Yuan said. “It’s all for this match. If you lose, it’s all over, this entire year, you did all this and you couldn’t make it. But if you win, then you’re secure. That whole 24 hour process before leading up to that match was certainly nerve-wracking. I tried not to think about it, but you can’t help.”
As soon as the deciding match finished, Yuan texted his mother to break the news, only saying that he thought he had qualified for the Olympics as he was still waiting for the official announcement at the end of April. Yuan’s mother reacted with pride and excitement, but she was also surprised by the result.
“We didn’t expect it because this is really his second year that he played professionally,” Jin said. “He tried to qualify, but it was more like a trial run. We didn’t really think he was going to make it. It was really unexpected and amazing, and I immediately texted my family, my sister, my parents and our [close] relatives.”
This excitement came after years of sacrifice and effort put in by Yuan’s parents to support him in his badminton journey. Since badminton doesn’t have major professional leagues and government support for national teams, costs are self-funded with the help of small sponsorships.
“When he was younger, we drove him all over to training, [and] we traveled with him to tournaments throughout the country and internationally,” Jin said. “Every holiday we pretty much were traveling with him, and his birthday is in the summer, [so] he’s hardly ever spent any of his birthdays at home. Even this year for Paris, it was his birthday, so he spent his 21st birthday in Paris.”
Of course, Yuan’s parents stayed in Paris for the first week of the Olympics, cheering him on in the arena at all his matches and watching the Opening Ceremony on the River Seine through a screen in a local park.
Yuan’s biggest inspirations in badminton are his coaches at the Global Badminton Academy club, Tony Gunawan and Naoko Fukuman. Both are former professional badminton players representing Indonesia and Japan, respectively. Gunawan himself is an Olympic men’s doubles gold medalist and world champion for Indonesia before moving to the United States.
“[Gunawan’s] arguably the greatest men’s doubles player of all time,” Yuan said. “Bring able to be under direct tutelage for him is just surreal. I often take that for granted because he’s so nice and we’re so close, but I often forget that he’s been through what I’ve been through, and he’s done it at the highest level
Fukuman, a world bronze medalist in women’s doubles representing Japan, has also played an instrumental role in Yuan’s development. She watched from the coach’s box during his Olympic matches and coached Yuan and Chiu to make adjustments during timeouts.
“[Fukuman was] the one who pushed me from this immature player who just plays for fun and is just kind of good at it to a professional player,” Yuan said. “She was the first one to help develop that journey.”
For younger student-athletes aspiring to become the best in their sport and make the Olympics, Yuan’s advice is to stay persistent and find a strong support system.
“As long as you have the passion, just keep going. Obviously you need to be realistic, I’m not saying don’t give up everything, but you need to have a backup. Just whatever you do, you always have to put your 100% and dedicate all your effort into it, all your time and all your energy into it, because with the right support, it all comes down to you. It’s not a matter of talent, it’s just who can stick it out longer, because you never know what will happen. … Don’t be discouraged by small hiccups or if things don’t work out your way in the beginning, because eventually, as long as you keep going, you can go make it.”
With this dedicated and unrelenting spirit, Joshua Yuan hopes to continue pursuing his studies and take his badminton career to new heights. Aragon sports fans and fans across the country should cheer for Olympian Joshua Yuan to lead Team USA to badminton glory.
