Michigan native Jayci Simon secures Team USA's first Paralympic badminton medal
Team USA's first two para badminton players are leaving Paris with a couple more pieces of Paralympic history around their necks.
Miles Krajewski and Jayci Simon won silver medals in the mixed doubles SH6 classification for athletes with short stature on Monday. The two 19-year-olds lost the gold medal match to a more experienced duo from China — Lin Naili (32) and Li Fengmei (31) — at Porte de la Chapelle Arena in northern Paris.
Gold was the ultimate goal for Krajewski and Simon, but they said they were elated by the final outcome. After all, Krajewski and Simon qualified for the Paralympics by grabbing the final available spot back in April.
"We knew that we were the underdogs, and our goal was just to get out of group," Simon said. "That was our first goal, and then to get to the gold medal match, so we achieved both of those."
A medal was the extra reward, one they were hungry to take once they arrived in Paris.
"I think that no dream is ever too big, so why not dream big?" Simon said before her first mixed doubles match. "It would really help grow the sport in the U.S. because we would have something to back us up, and I think that it would create more funding and more opportunities."
Simon herself is a product of someone else's desire to grow the sport. She had never heard of badminton before meeting Krajewski's father, Mike, at a Little People of America sports camp in 2016. Mike was impressed with her athleticism and recommended Simon try para badminton.
Drawing the American public's attention to para badminton is a goal for Mike Krajewski, but he has another key demographic in mind, as well: future Paralympians. The elder Krajewski says he helped recruit every short stature member of U.S. para badminton and some members of Canada's team, too.
"We've got to build on that momentum and … explain to them there's other paths," he said. "I think that's what we need to do is provide the opportunities, provide the camps."
Like Simon, many young American athletes with impairments choose to compete in adaptive sports more popular than para badminton, like wheelchair basketball, para athletics and wheelchair tennis.
Miles says he is seeing more badminton academies appear in the U.S. along with an increase in para badminton players in international tournaments, but expects much more in the near future.
"Hopefully it will grow at least five times as big," Krajewski said last Tuesday, contemplating how a medal could affect U.S. para badminton. "Just start slowly (and) continue to grow."
Krajewski and Simon plan to have a long career of trailblazing ahead of them, but will take a break from the sport first. Simon will start her sophomore year at Lansing Community College while working part-time as an optometrist, and Miles will begin his freshman year at the University of South Dakota.
What about immediate plans?
"Celebrate first," Simon said.
"Well, I've got to get drug tested now," Krajewski said. "Then celebrate."