Long before Gunn High School rising senior Arden Lee held a badminton racket, the sport was already shaping his future.
Lee began playing badminton at a young age, following in his badminton-loving family’s footsteps. The Lee family is full of seasoned, award-winning badminton players; they also founded the Synergy Badminton Academy, which now has three locations across the Bay Area.
“My parents actually met through badminton,” Lee said. “They started the badminton business. It started out very small, just a small shop.”
Prior to the family badminton business, Lee’s father won numerous awards throughout his badminton career, notably competing in the 1992 Olympic Games and being a nine-time United States Men’s Doubles Champion. Meanwhile, Allison Lee — Lee’s sister — has won several junior championships. His family’s accolades were a great source of inspiration to Lee, but he also struggled to live up to them.
“When you see your family being very successful in a sport, you want to be like them,” Lee said. “But I wasn’t seeing early success … so I was always chasing that.”
When Lee first entered the world of competitive badminton, he struggled with early losses and frustration. Before the pandemic, Lee struggled to advance past the first rounds in tournaments, often walking away from matches as an “easy first-round loss,” he said. At a time when his peers were claiming titles, Lee said he struggled with feelings of inadequacy — not just in competition, but also within his own family, where excellence in badminton was the norm.
“Whenever somebody came up to me at a tournament and said, ‘Oh, you’re Allison’s brother, right?’, it was like I didn’t even have a name anymore,” Lee said.
Then, the pandemic hit, and while it disrupted tournaments and closed gym doors, it gave Lee the perfect opportunity to train and reflect. Puberty added fuel to his progress, helping him grow stronger and more agile. By the time competitions resumed, he said he had undergone a complete transformation.
“After just staying home and doing nothing but badminton, that’s when I started seeing results,” Lee said.
In 2021, Lee entered two rounds of finals at Junior Nationals, a breakthrough he said was his “first big result.” A few years later, Lee and his doubles partner, Stanley Xing, a rising senior at Gunn High School, traveled to Europe for the prestigious All England Junior Championships. The duo won the competition, taking first place.
For Lee, standing atop the podium was more than just a victory — it also validated his efforts in advancing his badminton skills. It was a moment that proved he belonged on the international stage, he said, not as a shadow of someone else’s legacy but as a rising champion himself.
“That [standing on the podium] felt like a very, very big boost,” he said.
Lee’s partner, Xing, has played an important role throughout his wins and losses in competitive badminton. Their bond extends beyond the court as the partnership attends the same high school and has developed a close friendship.
Lee and Xing spend a lot of time together, whether at each other’s houses or carpooling to practices.
“We’re almost like brothers,” Xing said.
Their synergy is built on complementary roles: Lee brings enthusiasm from the backcourt, and Xing demonstrates skillful speed and control at the net, Lee said. Together, they have grown from childhood friends to elite competitors, recently qualifying for the Badminton World Junior Championships.
However, Lee’s path hasn’t been smooth. In October 2023, during a back-to-back stretch of international tournaments in Austria and Germany, he faced what he now considers the most significant setback of his career: While competing in a semifinal in Austria, Lee suffered a severe back injury, rendering his movement.
“It was pretty terrible,” Lee said. “I could barely move, and my dad, who wasn’t with me at the tournament, kept texting me saying, ‘It’s okay to forfeit. Just focus on healing your body for the future.’”
But Lee refused to withdraw.
“Obviously, with my ego, I was like, no way I’m going to forfeit this tournament. I’m already in the finals,” Lee said.
Despite his pain and the physiotherapists’ warnings, he played through the injury. While Lee won both the boys’ doubles and mixed doubles finals, it came at a cost. His injury was severe enough that he couldn’t even sit down on the train ride back from the tournament, Lee said.
The following week in Germany, he was unable to perform at his best and suffered an early exit in the mixed doubles bracket.
“That [exiting early] kind of made me learn the hard way,” Lee said. “Sometimes, it’s better to take a step back and focus on the bigger picture.”
Even through the highs and lows of his career, Lee has ambitious visions looking forward.
“My goal is very similar to my sister’s,” Lee said. “I want to take advantage of my youth and hopefully make it to the 2028 [Olympics].
Now, Lee has also started coaching younger players, which he said helps him give back to the sport that shaped him.
“What sets my brother apart is his balance,” Allison Lee said. “He’s fun and playful, but he knows exactly when to get serious. His positivity and energy are contagious.”
