i was the only one who "Liked" OneToughBirdie's original post!!! and I did so immediately when OTB made the post (ie, on 18 May).
Honestly, this is OLY and where all the marbles are on the line. Gold-silver-bronze or sweep would be what CHN/LYB want. All this SS and even WC are secondary to OLY. It is all about CHN tops as economic, military and sporting superpower, face and pride, every gold and medals counts. Having said that, WX, WYH or WSX/LXR and the same goes for the rest of CHN OLY team would be in their best playing shape, it would be very hard to deny CHN from winning. Since OLY08, LD form varied from someone said 'he is done' as in EAG, slow in SS, etc but look at LD in the past 3 months, that is one lean fighting machine, the speed, defense, power, etc are all back. The same for WX and CL in TC, sharp, fast and fit. Come OLY12, could CHN sweep all gold medals...without Dato possibly out, a sweep depends on CHN MD.
It will not be a sweep because MD and XD are too unpredictable.. Cai Fu could get silver but to win it is an uphill task. XD i have no hope in China...Zhang/Zhao are unstable...and Xu Chen is so useless. Indonesia might nick it.
It is still 2 months to OLY12, but I will bet with you that XD goes to CHN, it could even be an All-CHN final...when it comes to OLY, CHN team is a whole different attitude, there ain't no bigger business than OLY, it will take an 'uphill' task for the rest of the work to derail CHN plan.
I like Zhang/Zhao the most amongst all badminton players. But sadly, Zhang/Zhao have yet to win against Pedersen/Fischer on european soil.
I want Lin Dan, Wang Yihan and Zhao Yunlei to win gold especially Zhao Yunlei to win double gold in london...it doesnt seem possible...
I never like WYH very much. But my perception of her has changed in the past few days. In the face of apparent defeat in front of loved ones, she did not give up. I think this is what badminton (and life) is all about.
She (Wang Yihan btw) used to be quite stuckup and bitchy after she reached the top level of her game when winning her first All England title. The hardships she faced after Uber Cup transformed her into a better person and started to show eagerness to improve after every game. I am amazed to learn how much a defeat can be a life changer to one person's life, let alone career. On a personal level, I initially had the assumption of she having to harbor the sense of remorse for screwing up last time and deep grudge over Wang Shixian because she basically took her place and gold from the Asian Games, the place which was rightly hers had she not blundered. After the Uber Cup ,we see a more human and emotional side of Wang Yihan, she shows how much stronger she has become and determined she is. Not to win, but to improve every single time. That's a real sportsman.
Nevertheless, her human and soft side cant never beat Wang Lin and Wang Xin. As for Wang Lin, we as fans are happy as long as she continues playing whether she wins or loses and cheer us up with her smile on court. To be really honest, I reallly like this generation of women's singles ( Wang Lin, Wang Yihan, Wang Xin and Wang Shixian). All four of them created so many dramas like in the TV show unlike Zhang Ning's era together with Xie Xing Fang, Zhu Lin, Pi Hong Yan, Lu Lan...bunch of boring people..no excitement
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Poor Wang Xin. I would say it;s Li Xuerui's fault. Had she not thrown the match and decided to play Nehwal whom she had a better chance of beating. Wang Xin wouldnt fight so hard to the point where she injured herself.. Looking back now i feel LXR has really destroyed Wang Shixian, Wang Xin followed by Wang Yihan's dreams. So sad actually after thinking how hard these players work then suddenly out of nowhere a player came and took the gold away just like that.
Wang Yihan was not happy with Wang Xin's defeat Not only she was gravely upset by her gold medal loss, I never thought she would say such thing to vent her anger (sort of) and sympathy for Wang Xin. Excerpt from Yahoo UK Sports News: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/no-medals-sportsmanship-womens-singles-185100871--spt.html The win was still big news for India and a clutch of Indian reporters attended winner Li and runner-up Wang Yihan's press conference to ask their opinion of Nehwal as a player. "I don't have any comment," silver medallist Wang said, bluntly enough to make Chinese reporters in the room wince. "Wang (Xin) was definitely going to win. "It's because she got injured that (Nehwal) won ... so there's nothing to say about that."
Absolutely ok what she said. WX was in the lead which means 1 game closer to victory. Everything else is speculation.
I absolutely agree with what yihan said, but I really hate the news title: No medals for sportsmanship in women's singles. Totally crap
On her way to see the German specialist, Zhang Ning is with her. Hope she has a speedy recovery, all the best.