By Don Descoteau News staff ddescoteau@vicnews.com Mar 16 2007 National title caps second straight undefeated season for Thomson She’s older than most of her contemporaries and she’s white. The two characteristics earned Lyndsay Thomson the alternating monikers “Great White North” and “token white girl” during her stint as an assistant badminton coach for Team B.C. at the recent Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse. Those in the badminton set felt comfortable saddling the bubbly 27-year-old Saanich Peninsula native with the potentially awkward nicknames as much for her great sense of humour as her accomplishments on the court. She is admittedly able to avoid taking herself too seriously at such times. Thomson, who padded her competitive reputation last Saturday (March 10) in Richmond by winning a second straight national women’s singles title for Vancouver’s Douglas College, nonetheless understands what it takes to maintain her edge while playing a leadership role.

Lyndsay Thomson, playing for Douglas College, looks to serve during women’s singles play at the Canadian college national badminton championships held last week in Richmond. Photo by Jerald Walliser

In Whitehorse she wowed her B.C. teammates, seven of whom play for Douglas, with her workout strategy. Knowing that the college nationals were pending shortly after the team arrived home to the Lower Mainland, she arose at 5:30 each morning to get a fitness workout in with fellow Team B.C. official and Peninsula native, national team rower Iain Brambell.

During the lunch breaks from competition, she’d take to the court with her Douglas teammates.

“If you want something to happen you have to do something about it,” she said this week. “Being fit and being ready for something that I have to do is big (for me).”

An example of her dedication: After helping guide Team B.C. to an overall gold medal at the Games, she left the Yukon sick as a dog with the flu. She still managed to get her workouts in and practice up for the nationals, which began four days later. She won four matches without a loss in preliminary play then dispatched Douglas teammate Grace Wang in the championship semifinals Friday (March 9).

In a departure from tradition, the national finals began last Saturday with women’s singles. Such a scenario played perfectly into the Douglas strategy, since it meant the red-hot Thomson would start things off.

Despite a slow start – she uncharacteristically fell behind in her first game – she swept Laura Fong of Calgary’s Mount Royal College 21-18. 21-18 for the B.C. champs’ first gold of the day.

“That’s why she’s our team captain. Everyone looks up to her and knows she leads by example,” said Douglas head coach Al Mawani, whose charges made history in Richmond by becoming the first Canadian college team to sweep all five events at nationals.

Whether it’s helping coach younger players at Douglas or at the club level with Mawani’s badminton academy in Vancouver, it’s usually Thomson doing the encouraging of others. Hearing her teammates say “you’re our leader, you get us going,” before the final gave her the motivation to dig a little deeper.

“I think for me, it was neat hearing that,” she said. “As captain, you feel that you need to be helping your teammates all the time. It was neat to hear their support of me.”

While Thomson has competed at a national and international level in her pre-Douglas days, rolling through 2006-07 undefeated was no less satisfying for the second-year nursing student.

Her first season playing college badminton was largely a case of applying what she had learned over the years and getting used to the team dynamic – a case of “let’s have fun and see what happens” – this year was a definite case of setting a goal to win nationals again, she said.

In the process, Thomson added, she also rediscovered her love for the game.

It’s something she hopes to continue cultivating in future as she moves forward in the next stage of her involvement in the sport, which will no doubt see her coaching more.