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by Ryan Smith | AHL On The Beat
Skilled hockey gamers have a longstanding historical past of possessing an athletic pedigree inside their household timber.
Not surprisingly, such connections ordinarily manifest inside the sport of hockey. However in different situations, a participant’s roots may have ties to baseball (e.g., Jeff Petry), basketball (Seth and Caleb Jones), and even soccer (J.T. Brown).
For present Springfield Thunderbirds ahead Sam Bitten and his brother, former Thunderbird and fellow fan-favorite Will Bitten, their lineage comes from a way more surprising athletic supply – badminton.
Certainly, earlier than the brothers ever laced up skates, the Bitten household’s early recollections had been formed by the lightning-quick racket sport, whose origins date again to the nineteenth century. Lengthy earlier than Sam and Will started their journey on the ice, their mother and father Michael and Doris achieved one thing few athletes ever expertise: the possibility to compete on the world’s grandest stage.
The 1992 Summer time Olympics in Barcelona marked badminton’s official debut as an Olympic sport. Among the many 30 pairs competing within the inaugural males’s doubles match had been two Canadian duos, one in every of which featured Michael Bitten, who had earned the consideration of being among the many first athletes to signify Canada in Olympic badminton.
However Michael wasn’t alone in chasing Olympic goals. His journey was intertwined with Doris Piché, whom he had first met eight years earlier at a match of their native Canada. Doris, a Quebec native who grew up talking solely French, and Michael, the son of a army household who traveled extensively, initially bridged their language barrier by handwritten letters.
In Barcelona, Doris not solely grew to become one of many first two girls to ever don the Canadian colours in girls’s singles on the Olympics, however she superior all the way in which to the spherical of 16. She would additionally compete within the girls’s doubles competitors in Barcelona earlier than ending her Olympic profession in Atlanta in 1996 within the singles and blended doubles tournaments.
Though Will and Sam weren’t born till 1998 and 2000, respectively, their mother and father’ achievements left a long-lasting legacy.
“We grew up enjoying badminton even earlier than hockey,” Sam recollects of his childhood in Ottawa. “We had a racket in our palms from the time we had been little children. There are photos of me and Will hitting birdies at one another.”
Badminton wasn’t only a pastime – it was ingrained within the Bitten brothers’ upbringing. Their first jobs? Serving to out at Michael’s summer season badminton camps as counselors.
“The camps had round 60 children per week, and new teams every week,” Sam remembers. “After we had been actually younger, we attended the camps and liked it; it stored us lively and match enjoying sports activities. It’s in all probability why we’re at all times buzzing round (to at the present time).”
In an alternate timeline, Sam Bitten the hockey participant could by no means have existed, he admits.
“We grew up enjoying a number of sports activities, they usually at all times needed us to see what we excelled in and what we appreciated, and I actually liked badminton,” he stated. “If it was extra fashionable in North America, you’d in all probability by no means see me play hockey. I like the person facet and the mindset of coaching by yourself.”
Whereas he could have turned skilled in a unique sport than his mother and father, Sam nonetheless is fast to level out the parallels between singles badminton and the harder facet of hockey.
“I like that aggressive, one-on-one, ‘who desires it extra?’ aspect,” Bitten stated of his position as a bodily presence on the ice. “Badminton has a number of that as nicely.”
Bitten additionally takes notice of different intangibles which are shared abilities between the vastly totally different sports activities.
“There are many stops and begins, plus hand-eye coordination. Followers have seen [Will] rating targets out of mid-air earlier than, however I haven’t gotten the luxurious of doing that but, however possibly in the future. [Badminton] is an intense and enjoyable sport, and typically it will get a nasty rep or folks suppose it’s simple, however it’s simply so quick and folks don’t perceive the velocity till you see two elite gamers play.”
Raised by two Olympic athletes, the Bitten brothers grew up surrounded by the relentless drive of elite rivals. Each 4 years, when the Olympic torch is lit, it affords a second of reflection for Sam and his household.
“When the Olympics roll round, I take into consideration all of the hours my mother and father and the athletes educated. You place a lot into it to coach and carry out at your greatest on a nightly foundation.”
Ever the competitor along with his brother, Sam adamantly factors out that whereas Will could have reached the NHL first of their hockey careers, there’s one athletic endeavor the place the youthful Sam holds a definitive edge.
“I nonetheless play badminton so much, and I’ve received the one-up on Will in that sport, for certain,” he chuckles. “And he is aware of it, too.”
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