Top 5 Players in each event (MS, WS, MD, WD, XD)

wc gold is the legacy

disrupting the great wall of china? china ws has won wc since 2001 until rat broke it in 2013. For OL, they won 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 but marin won last year

 

if that's all she has by the end of her career, and without dominating for a long stretch, the passage of time will dilute her to a one/two hit wonder. those aren't rules i made up. where do you place chen jin, xia xuanze & gong ruina in badminton history? they each have wc gold, yet neither are ever referred to as 'legends.'

it was far far less likely a player west of the himalaya's would start beating china in any tournament than east of the mountain range.

 

so you mean they both disrupt the great wall of china, and the one on the west (marin) is more impressive than the one on the east (rat)?

 

to me saina was the trailblazer because she appeared before marin... but if carolina is your girl stick with her. no skin off my back.

 

so it's all abt who's your girl instead of what did she do to claim that she disrupt the great wall of china ?

 

We tend to get carried away by a player's success(es) while it's still fresh and in the heat of the moment, esp as it occurred right before our eyes and lose our sense of proportion. It's best to wait a number of years later, look back and evaluate it calmly, objectively and impartially, more of less what samkool started off by saying, yes 'look back...to compare'.

 

Saina stirred our imagination because she is/was the first WS to challenge the Great Wall of China in badminton, but to be honest her results weren't too impressive; it's more of a first mover effect among the rest of the world. To me, actually, there was another WS who deserves mention who started even earlier than Saina and comparable, if not better,that is Tine Baun (formerly Tine Rasmussen).

 

As for Lin Dan, absolutely, he is a rare and unique phenomenon, incomparable, he stands alone in the firmament, the greatest in the pantheon of badminton. The best part, scary, is that he's not done yet, still creating and rewriting history, I agree with @samkool viewpoint.

(Refrain from getting started about Rudy Hartono who, whether we like it or not, is disadvantaged by his being from a long bygone era when badminton was barely out of its infant stage, with considerably fewer worldclass players, much less competitive, a lot fewer top level tournaments available, and, most importantly, the equipment technology and training methodology are comparatively backward, if not primitive; thus making any comparisons difficult, meaningless and futile. Even if we insist,there's no disputing Lin Dan's 5xWC, 2xOG, 4xAG, 6xAE if you wish, various multiple PSS/SS titles, etc, surpassed by far Rudy Hartono's 8xAE, the de facto WC in his time)

 

They could be heroes, could be legends, like lcw but it's just challenge, not disrupt

 

i considered her as well. my reasoning is denmark has a much longer tradition in badminton and tine didn't start peaking until she was 27/28. her 3 all england's are nothing to shake a stick at, but, her peak run lasted a hair less than 4 years at the same time saina emerged, c. 2008.

i believe tine is the euro g.o.a.t. in ws.

 

i agree with most of comment in http://www.badmintoncentral.com/for...er-player-tine-baun-or-camilla-martin.124760/

 

it's close. their peak runs were about the same length.

confining their careers relative to europe, camilla would be the euro g.o.a.t... hard to imagine any future ws player dominating europe for longer.
against the rest of the world i think tine is a razors edge ahead.
neither of them sustained more than 4 peak years vs. the rest of the world.

back to carolina marin... she definitely has 'legend' potential but it's too early to know. she entered her peak with authority(!) at age 21 in 2014. can she sustain it until 2020? if she keeps her head in the game there's no doubt she can. she's one of the major reasons ws is so exciting right now because she brought real speed to the game. the first time i saw her play a superseries in person (2014) i was, like, w.t.f.!?!?!?

 

I wasn't talking abt who's legend from the first comment. To disrupt the great china wall, you have to beat them in the tournament that they care the most

 

Good point.

 

I think WangYihan is better than ZhangNing, Susi or XieXingfang and is proven by SS and WC titles. There hasnt been enough competition in WS from 2000s till the last 5 years.
and ZN closer rival is Xie right? Wang certainly has more rivals.

 

Totally agree. I remember, in the mid 80s, watching the relatively unknown Zhao Jianhua systematically take apart Morten Frost (at the time the man to beat) with an incredible display of power and speed. For me, he was the start of the new breed in technique, training and sheer aggression that took the game to a new level.

 

Of course. They care only world championships and Olympics ! That does not mean all other tournaments are useless for them. In fact, WS is the category where they were consistently beaten by the rest in those competitions I mentioned above. So, definitely there is a crack in their wall which they could not repair yet.

Sent from my SM-G600FY using Tapatalk

 

Winning the Olympics is every player's dream. If you've never won it or the WC, then , yes, it's worth more than 10+ SS titles, in that order.