FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 25, 1996

UNITED STATES BADMINTON ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES THOMAS AND      
UBER CUP TEAMS 

(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.)  --  America's finest badminton
athletes and Olympic Hopefuls will travel to Prague, Czech
Republic, February 17-24 to take on some of the best players in
the world at the 1996 Thomas and Uber Cup Preliminaries.  The
Thomas and Uber Cup are the World Team Badminton Championships
for men and women, respectively, held every even year.  Prague is
the European venue for the Thomas and Uber Cup Preliminaries,
while the Asian Preliminaries will be held February 18-25 in
Auckland, New Zealand.

Athletes selected to represent the United States include:

THOMAS CUP:
Mike Edstrom (Denver, Colo.)
Kevin Han (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
Chris Hales (Wooster, Ohio)
Mark Manha (Miller Place, N.Y.)
Tom Reidy (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
David Shaw (Atlanta, Ga.)

UBER CUP:
Linda French (Elmhurst, Ill.)
Erika von Heiland (Anaheim, Calif.)
Ngoc Tran (El Sobrante, Calif.)
Stefanie Westermann (Berlin, Germany)
Kathy Zimmerman (Denver, Colo.)
Zhao Yeping (Gaithersburg, Md.)

The U.S. men's team will compete against Germany, Slovenia, and
Malta in their group, while the women will take on Ukraine,
Mauritius, and Nepal.  In this team competition format, each
country will play a best-of five matches; three singles and two
doubles.  The winner of each group will advance to the
semifinals, and the semifinal winners will then travel to Hong
Kong for Thomas and Uber Cup Finals (May 17-26).

The Thomas and Uber Cup is also an Olympic Qualifying Event, with
results affecting athletes' world player rankings.  The
International Badminton Federation (IBF) will announce the 192
person Olympic badminton field (36 men's singles players, 36
women's singles players, 20 men's doubles pairs, 20 women's
doubles pairs, and 20 mixed doubles pairs) no later than April
15, 1996.

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(FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT PAUL PAWLACZYK, USBA
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, AT 719-578-4808).