Britain's best men's singles badminton player has plenty to say on China's role in Sudan - and the world is taking notice

Before last week, he might have been known to a small group in the know as Britain's best men's singles badminton player, 29 years old and Welsh; last week, though, Richard Vaughan revealed himself as an athlete with a serious political opinion on China. This might not seem so astonishing were it not that he seemed to be standing so alone. As if proof were required of his newsworthiness, it arrived on his doorstep in the form of a CNN news crew.

It was not just CNN, either. Vaughan was at an international team event in Almere, the Netherlands, last week when a plethora of British networks suddenly contacted him, plus more American, German and French crews, too, with requests for news interviews and political debate.

In a decade of badminton, Vaughan has been up to seventh in the world and won European and Commonwealth bronze medals, yet opening his mouth last week brought media attention on a level far exceeding anything he had achieved with his racket. Around the courts in Almere, the reaction from his fellow players was fascinating, particularly the overriding response from his fellow Britons, which was: “You're in big trouble now.”

To recap: last week Steven Spielberg resigned as artistic director of the Beijing Olympics on account of his disapproval of China's involvement in the Darfur genocide. Simultaneously a debate raged as to whether athletes should be allowed to use the Beijing Games as a stage to voice their political opinions. At which point Vaughan effectively said: to hell with that, here is my opinion whether you like it or not.

The Darfur issue was his text. He revealed himself to be part of Team Darfur, a pressure group of international Olympians. There are other British summer Olympians in Team Darfur, although none have gone public.

“In British sport, athletes are overreliant on funding and, as a result, are scared to say anything,” Vaughan said. “That makes us almost as bad as China. That's ironic.” Vaughan acknowledges that he is dealing in generalisations here, but it is a depressing idea that British athletes should be tiptoeing around the kind of limelight in which he has found himself to protect their funding.

“The Canadians, Americans and Australians seem to have a more rounded education and world knowledge,” he said. “The other European athletes were generally quite interested, asking for information on Team Darfur. But in the UK, we are very focused on the sport and not allowed to focus on anything else. There seems to be a lot more willing to toe the line.

“Some of the British players were suspicious and thought I was doing it for publicity. The suspicious ones were the guys; the girls were more supportive and interested in the cause. But for me, I tell you, there is absolutely no positive gain in this. A lot of people are just going to see this as causing trouble.”

After his A levels, Vaughan went to play professionally in Denmark, where he also did an Open University correspondence course, in international politics and economics, which developed his thinking. But if, he asks, you are an international athlete whose job takes you to different parts of the world and has you rubbing shoulders with the global community, how can you be blinkered to global issues?

Vaughan has been tutored by Chinese coaches and has engaged them in debate (“They will react adversely to any criticism of their country. Their answer to everything is they are only doing what the US or UK was doing before.”) And he is frustrated by his “self-interested” peers who fail to engage in this way.

“When you are an elite athlete,” he said, “you do give up a lot to do sport 24/7 and I understand that in sport you need to be selfish. I'm like that, I have to be. But I don't understand why that means you don't want to know what is going on.”

At times, Vaughan has considered quitting sport to work for the United Nations. It is not as if badminton has been a ticket to wealth; he gets no lottery funding at present and is supported in part by his girlfriend, a Cardiff doctor and former badminton player, and by his sponsors, which include Memory Lane Cakes.

Fending for himself, he believes, has helped to develop his mind. “I have to look after myself in terms of coaching and training,” he said. “So I'm more self-reliant, so maybe that has made me more inquisitive. A lot of athletes might have everything done for them and they don't really develop that side of themselves.”

Vaughan's priority is to qualify for Beijing. If he gets there, he has already had a law firm specialising in human rights offer to represent him and his right to speak. He would rather win a medal, but then his voice would only be louder.

Copyright © 2008 The Times.