PARIS—The Americans have a secret advantage in doubles badminton at these Olympics: None of their opponents have any idea which player on the court is which.
Annie and Kerry Xu developed their chemistry not on the badminton court but in the womb. They are identical twins, a fact that is more than just a fun piece of trivia. Their shared DNA lets them disguise their skills and befuddle their opponents. In fact, it might be the superpower that propelled them to the Paris Games.
“In the heat of the moment,” said Kerry, “it’s basically impossible for opponents to tell us apart.”
The Xu sisters’ indistinguishable features give them an edge that can’t be taught or practiced. The best doubles teams feature players with complementary skill sets. Annie is canny and clever around the net, parrying away the other teams’ shots. Kerry’s job is to supply the muscle.
Typically, the players on the other side of the net know what to expect from each of their opponents. But since the Xus have the same face, Kerry said, “We can use the shots we like without them anticipating those moves.”
Growing up, the Xu sisters always dreamed about playing in the Olympics. But when they started college—together, of course, at the University of California, Berkeley—they thought they were ready to move on and stopped pursuing competitive badminton to focus on their studies.
After graduation, the sisters found jobs outside of sports. But following the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, they realized they still had the itch to smack a shuttlecock across a net for hours on end—and that they could still do it at a high level. So they decided to end their half-decade hiatus and try for Paris 2024.
They succeeded and played their first match Saturday, falling to a team from China. They play again Sunday against a duo from Hong Kong. (Badminton is one of the few sports in which the Americans have never won a medal.)
“If we could have made it and we didn’t actually try, that would be something we would regret for the rest of our lives,” Kerry said.
Identical twins in sports have been a frequent area of study for people trying to understand how genetics influence athletic ability. Nancy Segal, a psychology professor at California State University, Fullerton, and the author of nine books on twins, said that research has shown that identical twins have “very highly matched” potential in sports.
It’s up to them to realize that potential, but because twins are so often competitive with one other, that’s not all that difficult. Bob Bryan, who won 16 Grand Slam doubles championships with his identical twin, Mike, said, “I don’t think we would have reached the level that we did without having each other.”
“You don’t want your twin to get stronger than you,” said Bob, who is currently serving as the men’s tennis coach for Team USA in Paris. “So if he’s going to the gym, you’re going to the gym, too.”
Segal said that the oft-speculated concept of “twin telepathy”—the idea that twins have an unexplainable extrasensory connection—has no scientific backing. Many twins, however, insist it’s real.
Bryan recounted a time he and Mike, on opposite coasts of the country, separately decided to go couch shopping on the same day. Neither one told the other—yet they somehow wound up buying the exact same couch.
Twins also have a weird way of finding each other, too: Bryan said that when he was arriving at the Olympic Village earlier this week, he immediately bumped into two women on the elevator carrying their racket bags that he didn’t recognize from tennis. It was Annie and Kerry Xu.
Instead of anything paranormal, Segal said twins tend to make great doubles partners simply because they know each other so well, in a way that no traditional teammates ever could. Their shared history creates “a finely tuned intimacy, and it plays out beautiful on the sports field.”
It manifests in ways obvious and more subtle. Bryan said he always felt he could take more risks on the court because he knew had a built-in partner for life, somebody who would never look for anybody else to play with and who “will never give up on you.”
“When the twin thing is clicking,” Bryan said, “it’s an extra edge.”
The Xu sisters agree. They both said they likely wouldn’t have decided to stage a badminton comeback and make it to Paris if her teammate wasn’t her twin.
When they step on the court, their opponents see double. Olympic rules require badminton doubles teammates to wear the same color shirt and, Annie said, “We both prefer longer hair.”