according to Chinese media, 4 Chinese national badminton players have applied to become a joint national team player as well as coach. it was not said what the purpose of the dual status is but Li Yongbo do think that it is a good idea considering the seniority and age. the 4 players are : Xia Xuanze, Zhang Ning, Zhang Jun & Gao Ling. Li Yongbo has passed the applications to more senior level management for approval.
Seems like they don't want to play in the 2008 olympic. Senior management likely have the final say. Hopefully china will have comparable replacement for them 4, especially the XD team.
I think they wont get the opportunity even if they want to play in 2008 Olympics... But hopefully they won't miss many tourneys because of their coaching status if its approved.
some updates. just read that the 4 players, and in addition, Chen Hong, have gotten their approval from the senior management. so from now on, the 5 of them will be able to take on the role of coach as well as players. however, the report also says they will be focusing on the Sudirman Cup to be held in Beijing next year. so their coaching time will be limited until then.
yeh, that's great because i can see xia even after he stops playing badminton! btw do any of you guys know how much it is to have a professional coach?
latest word in the media is that only Xia and Zhang Ning got approved to become coaches, Zhang Jun, Chen Hong and Gao Ling will remain as players.
Probably because they wanted Zhang/Gao to focus more on their own training since their successors are not ready to take over whereas Zhou Mi and Xie Xingfang is already among the best in the world...so they have no worries if Zhang Ning retires...and maybe they are still too young to be coaches(?)...
the Chinese team held a winter conference today (Jan 06 2005). the conference touched on subjects such as the 5 applications mentioned in this thread. according to the report, all 5 applications have been approved. however, Li Yongbo also says the while that is so, the 5 players will maintain their player status and their focus right now is still to play and not to coach badminton.
The successors might apply for MXD and WS cases, as more than once, the media already metioned the WS is extremely lack of young talents (consistent performer) behind Zhang, Gong, Zhou and Xie. I guess for Xia, he's relatively old and always bothered with injuries. There are upcoming young promises, and Xie is always a teammates' favorite and role model. As for Zhang Ning, even though, Li YB wants her to stay until 2008, but that's such a big risk. If she can adopt her own experience to help the young sisters to another lvl, it's a better bet in the long run.