This epic badminton rant is what Olympics passion is all about
The Olympics are full of indelible moments that live on through history.
Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Games, achieving great success under the stare of Adolf Hitler.
Derek Redmond at the 1992 Barcelona Games, pulling up lame with an injury, only to have his father hop down from the stands and help him cross the finish line.
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Kerri Strug's amazing vault and landing on an injured leg that secured gold for the U.S. Women in gymnastics at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
And, of course, NBC commentator and announcer Mary Carillo's epic rant on badminton during the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.
The start of the Summer Olympics is the best reason to revisit Carillo's terrific meditation on the rackets and shuttlecocks of an under-appreciated sport.
Ten years later, in 2014, Carillo told Deadspin that, "badminton, I'd been assured, was going to be 'the curling of the Summer Games.'" Noting a lot of her goofier, more fun pieces, she also gave a shout-out to another epic moment, her tribute to a Zamboni driver during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy.
In case this gets you hyped for some hot Rio badminton action, the most yard-worthy of Olympic sports gets its competition underway on Thursday, August 11.
Marcus Gilmer is Mashable's Assistant Real-Times News Editor on the West Coast, reporting on breaking news from his location in San Francisco. An Alabama native, Marcus earned his BA from Birmingham-Southern College and his MFA in Communications from the University of New Orleans. Marcus has previously worked for Chicagoist, The A.V. Club, the Chicago Sun-Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.
