By Ann Binlot
Growing up as a child of Asian immigrants in California, I wasn’t exactly encouraged to be an athlete. When I was young, my father enrolled me in piano lessons instead of having me join a t-ball or soccer team. Most of the Asians that did play sports during my high school years stuck with activities like tennis or badminton instead of football, wrestling or basketball. I didn’t play anything—mostly because my parents didn’t encourage it. As a tomboy who collected baseball cards and watched basketball, I looked up to basketball players like Michael Jordan and my favorite baseball players were Mark McGwire and Rickey Henderson. Not one of them was Asian like me. Most of the Asian athletes I grew up with participated in more “delicate” sports—I’ll never forget French Open-winning tennis player Michael Chang with his “moon balls” and olympic gold medalist figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi’s triple triple ...
Original Story:
