By Richa Naidu
PARIS (Reuters) – 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.
Twins Annie and Kerry Xu of the United States battled it out with Bulgarian sisters Stefani and Gabriela Stoeva on Tuesday 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.
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,” said Annie, 24, who looks identical to her sister.
“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,” Annie said.
Kerry, 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, 28, said. “I think they feel the same.”
In an interview with all four together, Gabriela and Annie said both pairs of sisters 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, who was sporting Olympic-themed nails that matched her sister’s.
The four agreed with a laugh that they still fought with their sisters while playing but had learned to hide it better.
(Reporting by Richa Naidu; editing by Clare Fallon)
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