Kirsty Gilmour’s third Olympic for Team GB: Counting down the days

Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour is headed to Paris for her third Olympics representing Team GB, where only 14 other badminton athletes competing in France are attending their 3+ Olympic games.

“With each Olympics that goes by I feel like I am in a better place physically and performance wise and it is no less exciting than the first time and I’m going into Paris in really good form”

The draw for the women’s singles took place on Friday 12 July, with Kirsty naturally being the last name to be drawn to reveal her group making for a tense watch.

Being drawn into Group N Kirsty will be playing number 6 seed He Bing Jiao of China as well as Azerbaijan’s Keisha Fatimah Azzahara. She has beaten Jiao before at the 2017 World Championships but at their most recent meeting the number 6 got the better of her winning in straight sets in June at the Indonesian Open.

She has only faced Azzahara once at last year’s European Women’s Team Championship Qualification who she beat in straight sets with Scotland women’s going on to win Bronze .

Kirsty’s group stages matches will be taking place between the 27^th July – 31^st July with a full schedule still pending. If she then makes it out of her group she will head into the round of 16 knockouts beginning on the 2^nd August.

Having yet to make it out of the group stages in an Olympics, only the top 13 advance to the round of 16 with Kirsty needing to beat both her group stages competitors to make It through.

“I’ve had good performances in the past but previously I’ve felt I’ve had to catch someone on an off day but with the way I am playing right now I can go toe to toe and take top players when they’re having a good day and it gives me a lot of confidence”

Badminton Scotland Head Coach Ingo Kindervater will be heading out alongside Kirsty, with his selection marking the first time a Scotland coach has gone to the Olympics since 2012. The two have worked together for years with Kirsty feeling strong for her third Olympics.

“To do this Olympics with the coach I work with day in, day out is really important and it’s testament to the work we’ve done in Team GB and the cooperation and trust we have going on an athlete based program. I really appreciate this decision has been made and it’s another reason I feel so confident and content going into these games to know that I have Ingo there and we can be so specific about what we’re doing and work so closely right up to and through the games”

Kirsty heads out to Paris alongside England’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy who are representing Team GB in the men’s doubles in Group A.

Image credit: BadmintonWire