Badminton: Chew one seasoned rookie

For as long as he can remember — actually even three years prior to that — Phillip Chew has been swinging a badminton racquet.

Though his first memory of playing the sport was winning the 9-and-under junior national championships in singles and doubles as a 5-year-old, Chew was introduced to the sport when he was 21 months old by his grandfather, Don Chew.

Just more than two decades later, Phillip Chew, a UC Irvine student, is preparing to represent the United States in men’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

And while only 22, the Olympic experience is the culmination of a lifetime of dedication to and passion for the sport that is also something of the family business.

Don Chew founded the Orange County Badminton Club in Orange and Phillip Chew, who grew up in Orange and attended Villa Park High, has likely spent more time in that building than any other, including his home.

“Our family runs it,” Phillip Chew said of the OCBC, which is the training home to virtually every U.S. Olympian in recent years. “I’m there pretty much all day. It’s like my home. I pretty much go home only to sleep.”

Chew’s resume is certainly eye-opening. He won 10 straight U.S. junior national age-group singles titles from 1999 to 2008 and added an 11th in 2010. He has also won nine U.S. junior national doubles and nine U.S. junior national mixed doubles crowns.

In international tournaments, he has won five mixed doubles gold medals and two in men’s doubles. Two of those mixed titles and one doubles crown were captured in Brazil, at the Brazil International in 2013 and 2012 in Sao Paolo.

He won mixed doubles titles in 2015 at the Pan American Games and the Chile International Challenge and also claimed the men’s doubles crown at the Pan Am Games in Toronto.

But this time around in Brazil, competing in his first Olympics, Chew faces long odds, made more imposing by some recent health challenges. He has been ill, he said, the last few days, and is just coming off a recent bout with vertigo that has left him at what he estimated was 80 percent of his full physical capacity.

Chew and mixed doubles partner Jamie Subandhi are ranked No. 37 by the Badminton World Federation. Chew and men’s doubles partner Sattawat Pongnairat are ranked No. 42.

“We’re definitely underdogs,” said Chew, who first played with Subandhi at the 1999 junior nationals.

Pongnairat, 26, who was born in New York, but moved to Thailand at age 2 and lived there until returning to the U.S at 18, was paired with Chew in time to qualify for the 2016 Games in Rio.

“The Olympics is the pinnacle of the sport,” Chew said. “Everyone tries to get an Olympic medal in badminton; not like tennis, in which the four majors [have a higher profile]. We’re striving to make it out of the group stage, which would put us in the quarterfinals. From there, anything can happen.”

Chew said his previous visits to Brazil for tournaments, including Rio, fortify his confidence that health and security concerns will be minimized at the Olympics. But he said he isn’t planning to immerse himself in the overall Olympic experience.

“It’s exciting,” he said of his Olympics debut. “But we’re still trying to focus more on competition, as opposed to the experience. We want to put forth our best effort.”

Chew has evolved into a doubles specialist, due, in part, to an ongoing battle with his weight. At 5-foot-8, he said his weight has fluctuated between 190 and 215 pounds.

“People have told me that if I was lighter, I would be much faster,” Chew said. “And, for being one of the heavier players, I don’t hit very hard. There are [however] people in the top 10 who are bigger than I am, so it’s not like [achieving elite status] is not possible.”

Chew said his technical skill, experience and his ability to place the shuttlecock are his strengths as a player. He also plays with great emotion, he said, frequently punctuating points with verbal roars of excitement.

“I’m definitely more the quiet type and I’m not very demonstrative [off the court],” Chew said. “But on the court, things are different. I’m very competitive and that side of me comes out. I’m just trying to boost myself, keep my morale high and build momentum to just get to the next point.”