what story will be in the book? - his love story with XXF? - his childhood? - his Athens's lost? - LYB's team management?
Olympics-Badminton-China's "Super Dan" primed to defend title By Ian Ransom LONDON, July 27 | Fri Jul 27, 2012 3:48pm EDT LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - The former bad boy of Chinese badminton, world number one Lin Dan, came of age with his home Games triumph in Beijing and has set his sights on becoming the first player to successfully defend an Olympic badminton title in London. With four world titles, two Asian Games gold medals and a raft of Super Series championships, the spiky-haired 28-year-old has little left to achieve in the playing arena. Enriched by endorsements as one half of a celebrity power couple with wife Xie Xingfang, a former badminton world champion herself, Lin also has precious little need to play on. However, the People's Liberation Army officer is a patriot, and thus determined to salute the crowd at Wembley Arena four years after draping himself in the red flag of China in front of feverish spectators at Beijing. "I don't feel any difference (this time round)," Lin said in the leadup to the Games. "I still want to win the gold medal this time as much as in 2008." Lin will be seeded second when he takes on unheralded Irishman Scott Evans in his opening match on Monday, but few have any illusions as to who is the real top dog here. Lin marched into the same stadium last year, survived a match point against long-time rival Lee Chong Wei and stormed to victory, ripping off his shirt in ecstasy, having defended his world title. Malaysia's Lee is top seed in London but has been hampered by an ankle injury sustained during the Thomas Cup in May and rates himself 90 percent fit. Lin's biggest threats are likely to be his countrymen, world number three Chen Long and fourth-ranked Chen Jin. "If you win three world championships and an Olympics in four years, you have to go down as, in my view, the best singles player of all time, there's no doubt about it," Danish world number five Peter Gade told Reuters. FIERY TEMPER Lin is unfazed by competing on the biggest stage of all without the tidal wave of support he rode to the title in Beijing. "Playing at home provides more pressure than playing on foreign soil," said Lin, who trounced Malaysia's Lee in the final in Beijing. "At home, there's a lot of people coming to support you and hoping you win the title. The voices in your head keep saying 'you have to win' and that increases the pressure. "Playing overseas can make it easier emotionally because you only have to focus on preparing and executing your plan properly which should result in a good outcome." Born in the steamy southeastern province of Fujian, Lin started playing badminton at the age of five and was selected for the national team at 18. He won his first major international title in the 2003 Denmark Open and quickly rose to be world number one in 2004 but for a time appeared unable to control his fiery temper enough to triumph in the world's biggest events. He crashed out of the 2004 Olympics in the opening round and became involved in a string of spats with Athens champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia, who beat him for the 2005 world title and Asian Games gold the following year. Apart from a blip at the 2010 world championships, when Lin made a shock quarter-final exit, the man dubbed "Super Dan" has ruled the roost in the men's game since, to the delight of his 16 million followers on his Chinese microblog. He has kept a low profile in London, dodging media requests and shielded by his coaches, but cut a breezy figure as he posed for pictures with his rival and friend Lee outside his hotel in Wembley Plaza. His first-round opponent Evans, ranked 76th in the world, has tried to put on a brave face for Ireland. "Even if I break my leg on court, I'll enjoy it," Evans said. "If I want to win a medal then I'll have to beat Lin Dan whether now or in the final... I'm tired of people being negative about it. You have to be positive." (Editing by Clare Fallon)
I've seen him make the Christian cross before matches so I assumed that he is Christian. Can anyone confirm this?
anybody know why LD seems so lazy in today's SF match? and what's wrong with LHI? not so much effort too. btw, congratz Lin Dan (along with LCW) for yours consecutive OG MS finals.
CONGRATS TO LIN DAN FOR MAKING HIS WISH COME TRUE AS THE FIRST DOUBLE OLYMPICs MS GOLD MEDAL WINNER in LOG. Thank you and LCW for making badminton so exciting all these years.
LD is the greatest player of all time! 2 olympics 1 asian games 4 world championship and 5 all england! truely amazing!
the cross tattoo is dedicated to his grandma whom was (is? idk) a christian, and she always prayed for him
Lin Dan's achievement level - Divine Two more tasks left you to do before you retire: Win the next WC in Guangzhou (time to stop allowing korean Park Joo Bong from topping the gold medal table for far too long) and last but not least, help China win the next Thomas Cup to surpass Indonesia.
congratulation to LD!! 1st MS player to win 2 OG gold medals! what a final match, can go either way, but it's him who finally closed the match! credit and respect to LCW too, to give such a fight although just came back from injury. why must you give him such huge task to do? for me, i personally think that there's no use compare mr. PJB achievements with LD in the term of WC titles. reason would be: 1. LD won WCs when it held annually, but in the past, it was held once in 2 years. 2. eventhough mr. PJB won WCs that held bi-annually, but he won it in 2 different disciplines, XD and MD. therefore i think he had 2 chances in 1 tournament, whereas LD just compete in 1, MS. peace
With CHN winning all five badminton gold medals on offer at this LOG, it will be another record hard to beat for a long, long time!