Bethell ready to take his chance on badminton's Paralympic debut

Six years ago Dan Bethell was in his second year of his law degree at Bristol university, half-listening to the contracts lecture taking place in front of him while idly flicking through social media on his phone.

Then he spotted the news.

The programme for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games had been announced – and badminton would be making its debut.

Bethell could feel the blood drain from his face as he stood up from his seat on the front row of the lecture hall, his body shaking, and quietly walked out.

“I went outside and immediately started calling my family and friends – I think I called my Mum and Dad first and they were very excited – they worked so hard taking me to training and travelling to tournaments. It was such a great moment – and such a historic moment for the sport,” reflects the 25-year-old from Bath.

“From that moment on I knew the potential was there – although we knew the sport was going to be in the Games, we didn’t know the categories (classifications) that would be involved – we didn’t find that out until a couple of years later.

“But despite that, I thought this was my chance - and when that announcement was made I wanted to make sure I was in the best possible shape to go to the Paralympics.”

Now Bethell has taken a giant leap closer to achieving his dream with confirmation that he has secured a place on the ParalympicsGB squad bound for Tokyo 2020, and he is acutely aware of the responsibility that comes with this landmark achievement.

“It feels surreal because we’ve been talking about going to the Paralympics for so long now, so to finally have that opportunity to go and be the first to play our sport - it’s a very historic Games for badminton,” he acknowledges.

“That puts a lot of responsibility on me and my teammates’ shoulders because we want to go to Tokyo to perform well for ourselves and for the sport and to show the world what Para badminton is about.

“It’s really important that we showcase what we can do on the court and off the court too, to show that we are good role models and show off the sport in the best light possible.”

Bethell is certainly role model material – even if his lecturer perhaps didn’t think so that day six years ago as he walked out the door. The 25-year-old completed his undergraduate degree - and this year achieved a Masters degree with distinction. On the court he is a three-time European champion and he won silver at the World Championships in 2019. He is passionate about badminton and believes sport has a vital role to play in bringing people together.

“I just look at my teammates – all different ages and all different backgrounds – if you put us in a room together and take the sport out of it, you’d never think we’d interact with each other and be as close-knit friends as we are. We come together through sport: that’s the best thing about sport for me, you can always come together through sport - the power of sport is a magical thing.

“My main hope and goal is obviously to get that gold medal – it’s been my dream since I first started, but embracing the experience is very important for me too. I’ve spoken to a few athletes who have gone to previous Paralympics and they tell me it’s not like anything you’ve ever been to, we’ve never had a multi-sport event. I’m just really excited to go there and be in that atmosphere, to be in the village - it’s a big lifetime opportunity so I want to make sure I embrace every single moment of it.”