Completely in agreement. Lin Dan, LCW, Taufik, Gade are still in a league of their own. I call them the 4 heavenly kings of modern badminton. VA & Momota, while noteworthy in their current achievements, still have ways to go before even coming close to being mentioned in the same breath as these legends. tldr : Lin Dan, LCW, Taufik, Gade = Legends VA, Momota, etc. = meh
Not a simple repackaging nor rebranding by Singapore. LKY's basic training was in M'sia as a kid before he came to SG at 13 y.o. It was his ability to adapt to SG conditions, his willingness to learn and train hard, and his passion for and commitment to badminton, that have elevated his game to his present adult level. Consider how many junior world champions are unable to make it to the professional level in world badminton and why LKY is able to be one of the few exceptions. In this regard, SG has spent much resources in helping to develop LKY to where he is currently. I think LKY is enjoying his journey and may well achieve his dream of winning an Olympic medal for SG, hopefully in Paris. It is good that LKY remembers what his parents in Penang have done for him and visits them regularly, (most probably with elder brother Kean Hean, who also plays MD for SG) particularly on CNY. But remember LKY has many friends in SG too since he has studied at the Singapore Sports School for a few years, and like most other adult male Singaporeans, has served about 2 years in National (Military) Service, which is compulsory for males when they turn 18 y.o. I read that LKY has very good support from these friends in his badminton journey. I also have many ex-Malaysian friends in my badminton community. Some are also from Indonesia and they help raise the standard of play.
I do agree that SG spend a lot of resources on LKY and I'm not sure if he stayed in Malaysia he would be able to come so far(in my opinion). I think there's many good players in Malaysia and LKY developed quite late. Malaysia tends to drop players who don't show results after a certain age and he may have not been noticed due to that. Plus Malaysia has to look after so many more players,not just in MS,but also MD,XD,WD and the resources has to be split among so many more players. While Singapore can focus most of their resources on LKY and Yeo Jia Min. I don't really think LKY is intrinsically any better than any of Malaysia's junior players actually but he probably got more support than many Malaysian players get(training in Europe,being the first choice player,etc) which helps him go further. Sent from my SM-A307GN using Tapatalk
I disagree. Chen Long should be in that list of older legends. Momota and Axelsen should be included as “legends in the making” as they have achieved as much as some of those names. Some may even argue that both of them achieve more than some of those 5 legends.
It’s hard to say. As with many things it’s not always black and white. LCW lost to Brice Levedez when the Frenchman is not anywhere near LCW’s level. As we can see, LKY improved leaps and bounds this year. He has defeated all top names including Momota, Lee Zii Jia, Antonsen, and Axelsen. Also, Viktor has played non-stop leading up to World Championships back to back staying undefeated in both Surdiman Cup and Thomas Cup. Just because Axelsen or Momota have one early round loss/unexpected upsets, we shouldn’t fault them much. Remember all great legends has early round defeats like LCW losing to Brice Levedez, Lin Dan to Ronald Susilo, Chen Long to Kevin Cordon in World Championships and to Kenichi Tago, and Son Wan Ho in Thomas Cup and Sudirman Cup. I am sure the same happened to Peter Gade and Taufik Hidayat as well but I can’t name any off top of my head right now. Edit: I just checked the 2017 BWF calendar and the 2017 WC was on 8/21-8/27 and the last major tournament was Indonesian Open on 6/12-6/18 so many top players including LCW got enough rest and preparation. I am not faulting LCW but merely saying that we all understand/sympathize for LCW in that instance yet some of us fault VA and Momota for crashing out early when they had back to back tournaments with this year’s hectic schedule is very bias/unfair.
phwoarrr.. suddenly the defenders of Singapore badminton pride appeared. I am rooting for this underdog with deep Malaysian roots too guys. Pun aside, let's stay grounded before getting ahead of ourselves talking like this is done and dusted. Remember, he has yet to win this, and there are other hot favs who are more capable and accomplished in the running.
i wanted to keep it to 4 heavenly kings haha.. so lets just say... criteria = limit of no more than 1 from a country
side question.. anyone knows any odds/ betting sites? not a gambler, just curious to see what gaming industry thinks about who will win.
Congrats LKY! Great win. So many errors from VA who seemed off. It's getting more interesting with no Momota, no VA. On paper, it's Antonsen's big chance. But this post long hiatus era keeps delivering surprises. It's good to see Zhang Nan again, let's see if he can go far with Ou. I knew it would be a tough match against Koga/Saito considering their past meeting but didn't expect that score from Di/Wang. Still rooting for TTY to get the gold.
Infact, the training stint with Victor Axelsen was the one of the key for his recent success. After having seen Axelsen's steep smashes at training, he is so confident in facing any other player in the circuit . Thanks to Viktor for calling some of the upcoming talents . I could see a vast improvement in these youngsters.
Heheh yeah, Viktor will probably bill LKY for all that help/training/sparring. Maybe he will think twice and kick out up and coming players like Brian Yang…Lol j/k LKY probably doesn’t need Victor’s help anymore. If he wins this event, he will create his own training agenda and invite anyone he wants.
I dont feel Taufik and PeterGade is at the same level , why lump them all together? Taufik won OG yes, WC yes,AG yes but he didnt win that many titles in his career. If any should put LD,LCW,CL,Axelsen,Momota.
Taufik has OG, WC, AG etc which many players are longing for. Ask Momota how he would have felt when he lost in early round @ Olympics in his own country. Would that Olympics Gold equal to number of titles he won before?. Nah. He knows. Only fans try to twist the scenes according to their preferences.
Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei were superhuman athletes in the same realm as Rafael Nadal and Micheal Phelps. Their explosiveness, built, endurance, foot speed, vertical leaps etc won't be seen again in the next 100 years as the Instagram, Toki Tiko, PUBG, Meta facebook generation comes to the fore.
Probably because they were the original four "Yonex Legends". I do agree that the accomplishments of the four are different with LD sticking a bit out. If anything, it is dangerous to compare retired players to players who are hopefully still long from retirement. Both LD and LCW, when at VA's current age, had only won around half of their championship medals.
Hmm.. depends on your point of view. For example Taufik has much more big titles than Lcw. Even if we count all silver medals
I secretly hope HK Vittinghus wins. It would be amazing to watch someone of his maturity (in age & career exp) win in an old guard vs NKOTB finals. Anyone else with me?
Even few years back, the player who won the toss used to choose to "serve" instead of choosing the sides . Nowadays nice to see players try to select the sides as well instead of selecting to Serve..
