Lin Dan ( 林丹 )

National Games of China 2017

Father Time finally catches up with Chinese legend ‘Super Dan’, but how long will he go on?

Chinese ace leaves many fans asking how long he will continue in the game after his world championship defeat

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 29 August, 2017, 3:43pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 29 August, 2017, 9:43pm


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Lin Dan reacts during the final against Viktor Axelsen at BWF Badminton World Championships 2017 in Glasgow. Photo: Xinhua

Agence France-Presse


1 Sep 2017

Lin Dan’s defeat in the world championship final has prompted fresh conjecture that the Chinese superstar could soon call time on his brilliant badminton career.

The 33-year-old “Super Dan” said after losing Sunday’s showdown to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in Glasgow that he would immediately return for China’s National Games and then play at next month’s Japan Open.

“After that I have no plans,” said Lin, indicating he might soon call it a day. “It will be difficult to play in the World Championships at 34.”

But the two-time Olympic and five-time world champion, regarded widely as the greatest singles player of all time, mixed his message by adding that reaching the final against a player 10 years younger “showed that I am still strong enough physically”.

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Lin Dan stand on the podium with his silver medal after defeat by Denmark’s Axelsen. Photo: AFP

Lin was the bad boy of Chinese sport in his younger days, with a rap sheet that included hitting a coach. And he has hinted at retirement before, only to plough on.

Lin proved his enduring quality in Scotland by beating South Korea’s world number one Son Wan-Ho in the semi-finals, before going down to the 23-year-old Axelsen in what felt like a changing of the guard.

“It is unbelievable to beat Lin Dan, I have been watching him for years,” said the Dane.

As he nears the end of his career, Lin has been cherry-picking his tournament appearances to help extend his time at the top, like 36-year-old Roger Federer who has enjoyed a resurgence this year to win two tennis grand slams.

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Axelsen celebrates after scoring during the final against Lin Dan. Photo: Xinhua

Lin has fallen to seventh in the world rankings and fans on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, where he has 3.75 million followers, said he lost the final to Old Father Time rather than his Danish opponent.

“The best players will always lose to time/age in the end. Even in defeat Lin Dan deserves to be honoured and respected. You will always be Super Dan,” said one.

Lin Dan scandal racks up 2.5 billion views on Weibo

But many were more concerned with Lin’s love life which has made more headlines than his badminton in the past year.

The once sky-high popularity of the tattooed shuttler – it is rare for Chinese athletes to have tattoos – has never recovered fully despite Lin apologising in November last year for an affair with a model while his wife and former badminton starlet Xie Xingfang was pregnant.

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Lin Dan gave mixed messages about how long he would continue after the defeat. Photo: AFP

Observers said Lin showed his advancing years had slowed him in the defeat to world number three Axelsen.

“We all hoped to see Super Dan continue his legacy, but objectively speaking there’s a 10-year age gap between the two players, think about the extra effort that has to be put in,” commentator Tong Kexin said on state television after the defeat.

Lin Dan apologises as pictures of badminton star having affair while wife was pregnant blow up Chinese internet

Many people expected Lin to retire after last summer’s Rio Olympics, where he surrendered his title and lost the bronze-medal match to Axelsen.

But a reply Lin gave to Chinese media offers an insight into why he continues to defy expectations.

Asked in 2014 what he would say in a retirement speech if given only one minute, he answered: “I would say ‘I don’t want to go’ and repeat it for 60 seconds.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as:
Father time catching up with fading ‘Super Dan’



Like com'on man!

Lin Dan reached the finals of the World Championships, and people are talking about his downfall.

Like a silver in world championships is a dream for most badminton players, and something most badminton players, even at pro levels, never achieve.

Also, Taufik Hidayat, and Peter Gade kept playing badminton for a LONG time. It was in fact getting embarrassing when they were loosing in initial rounds of the tournaments, and weren't even able to progress up to quarterfinals.

Lin Dan on the other hand, still has one of the best win-loss ratio of the season, has reached a WC final, is ranked in top 5, and won the Malaysia Open.

He can very well go on playing until Tokyo. The only thing he needs to work on is motivation, desire, and fitness. Learn something perhaps from Federer.

His skills are still very good.
 
Like com'on man! Lin Dan reached the finals of the World Championships, and people are talking about his downfall.
goats live by, and are judged by a different standard. yes, it's ridiculous but that's sports.

i just watch him play as much as i can because the day he stops playing is out of my control.
 
If only he had the won that game point in BWF WC Final. Sigh!

My biggest regret is that Lin Dan deliberately wasted time after 2012, running around launching underwear brands.

If he had continued the focus, the hunger, he would have won 2014. 2015 WC, and 2016 Gold.

He was within 2 points of Olympic Finals.

And Lin Dan's record today would be reading:
7 World Championships Gold
3 Olympic Golds
 
My biggest regret is that Lin Dan deliberately wasted time after 2012, running around launching underwear brands.

If he had continued the focus, the hunger, he would have won 2014. 2015 WC, and 2016 Gold.

He was within 2 points of Olympic Finals.

And Lin Dan's record today would be reading:
7 World Championships Gold
3 Olympic Golds

True but bear in mind that 2014 Knee injury took a lot out of him. His Power game was gone forever since then.
 
LD still will have the motivation - he wants little LD to see him win gold in Tokyo 2020
qualifying? hard. winning? i don't think lin dan is expecting that even if he qualifies.

lcw has an easier road, almost cake walk, to tokyo 2020. why? it's a #'s game. the country quota makes it easier for lcw. he's currently ranked #7. the next highest malaysian is #40. all lcw has to do is hang around the top 30 and hover around 40,000 points: the equivalent of finishing 2nd @ 8 gp gold level tournaments each year, or getting to the 1/4's in 8 ss/p's... or be at least the 2nd highest ranked malaysian within the top 50. shouldn't be too hard for him over the next 3 years. in any case he still won't win gold.

lin dan's problem is he'll have to be ranked way higher than lcw because more ms from china are always crowding the top 10. he needs to be the 2nd highest chinese ms. he'll need to stay in the top 5, around 65,000 points. that means he needs to make semi's in 8 ss/p's... or hang around the gp gold level and make the finals in almost all of them. the chinese team will help his cause with some extra points @ team events, but still, the pressure is on to finish high @ the individual tournaments. trying to do this without over taxing himself won't be easy.

so there you have it. 2 legends who need to choose wisely on their road to tokyo.
 
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qualifying? hard. winning? i don't lin dan is expecting that even if he qualifies.

lcw has an easier road, almost cake walk, to tokyo 2020. why? it's a #'s game. the country quota makes it easier for lcw. he's currently ranked #7. the next highest malaysian is #40. all lcw has to do is hang around the top 30 and hover around 40,000 points: the equivalent of finishing 2nd @ 8 gp gold level tournaments each year, or getting to the 1/4's in 8 ss/p's... or be at least the 2nd highest ranked malaysian within the top 50. shouldn't be too hard for him over the next 3 years. in any case he still won't win gold.

lin dan's problem is he'll have to be ranked way higher than lcw because more ms from china are always crowding the top 10. he needs to be the 2nd highest chinese ms. he'll need to stay in the top 5, around 65,000 points. that means he needs to make semi's in 8 ss/p's... or hang around the gp gold level and make the finals in almost all of them. the chinese team will help his cause with some extra points @ team events, but still, the pressure is on to finish high @ the individual tournaments. trying to do this without over taxing himself won't be easy.

so there you have it. 2 legends who need to choose wisely on their road to tokyo.
Good points.
Fortune changes, that is if both of them decide to continue playing.
 
@samkool @racketman123 Since You guys are not watching CNG matches , This is how Lin Dan fared yesterday


Yeah, immediately after coming back from Glasgow, he and the rest went for more than 20 hours at a stretch without any proper sleep, just some hours of afternoon nap after the R1 team match is not enough to completely shake off the jetlag. He continued to struggle with it for the next few rounds.

Though Chen Long is facing the same problem, how is Lin Dan going to overcome Chen Long next week should they meet in the MS semifinals event ?

Lin Dan is the record holder in having won a hat trick of 3 gold medals back-to-back in three editions since the 2005 CNG when he was about 22 years old followed by winning in 2009 and 2013 ; in fact, he first participated in the CNG in 2001 at age 18 and won a silver. All in all, it's been 16 years now at this 13th edition 2017. Can he make it 4 in a row now in MS at Tianjin CNG'17 ? The odds are against him, it seems, not least his physical conditioning playing three consecutive weeks of top level badminton, what with jetlag thrown in for good measure.
 
My biggest regret is that Lin Dan deliberately wasted time after 2012, running around launching underwear brands.

If he had continued the focus, the hunger, he would have won 2014. 2015 WC, and 2016 Gold.

He was within 2 points of Olympic Finals.

And Lin Dan's record today would be reading:
7 World Championships Gold
3 Olympic Golds
Well, it showed he is still human after all. What with 2 OG and 5 WC and a whole host of prestigious titles far in excess of what anybody else can dream of, it's only natural he wanted to take a long break to enjoy life, savour the memories, do those things he had always wanted to do but not find the time for. After all, he lives and breathes badminton but his life is not only badminton.

The only problem or mistake is that he started to live the celebrity lifestyle a bit too much, got carried away, yielded to temptation, and even neglected his badminton somewhat; apart from his other distractions, such as commercial activities including starting his own business, not to mention official duties which he's expected to fulfill.
 
in the just concluded world championship, the established china players like chen long and lin dan did not bring their A game.
reasons are

  1. the china national games is more important.
  2. ensuring badminton in olympics by allow other countries especially europe to win.
  3. early lcw loss made lin dan demotivated.
 
in the just concluded world championship, the established china players like chen long and lin dan did not bring their A game.
reasons are

  1. the china national games is more important.
  2. ensuring badminton in olympics by allow other countries especially europe to win.
  3. early lcw loss made lin dan demotivated.

All of these are false and untrue.

Trust me, I have been making excuses for Lin Dan's poor show since 2014, but these ones are even more ridiculous.

  1. No they are not. If they had been, the players would not have participated in World Champs, and just stayed behind. And anyways, it doesn't make much sense to reach all the way to final, and then not play your best. In fact that would be a big confidence boost.
  2. Again no!
    China only won 2 Gold out of 5 in Rio 2016. Anyways badminton is a very popular sport which is not going anywhere. In fact, Table tennis, which china COMPLETELY dominates, has actually added one extra event in their event list.
  3. Com'on man! Not a reason at all!
 
the Chinese players have to endure something very few people can endure:

1. travelling from Beijing to London to Glasgow

2. Adjusting your biological clock by 7 hours.

3. Compete against the world's finest athletes

4. travel back from Glasgow to London to Beijing to Tianjin

5. Adjust your biological clock back again.

6. Compete against China's finest athletes in both team and individual events immediately

Now I know why LXR didn't go to Scotland.
 
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don't start soiling your panties now.

All of these are false and untrue.

Trust me, I have been making excuses for Lin Dan's poor show since 2014, but these ones are even more ridiculous.

No they are not. If they had been, the players would not have participated in World Champs, and just stayed behind. And anyways, it doesn't make much sense to reach all the way to final, and then not play your best. In fact that would be a big confidence boost.
standard of glasgow world champs is lower compared to china national games especially men's singles.it's obligation to participate.

Again no!
China only won 2 Gold out of 5 in Rio 2016. Anyways badminton is a very popular sport which is not going anywhere. In fact, Table tennis, which china COMPLETELY dominates, has actually added one extra event in their event list.
cannot take ping-pong as example. badminton was almost kicked out after london.

Com'on man! Not a reason at all!
 
don't start soiling your panties now.
You must be kidding me! Every country has a similar reason to say if it is projected out. No way, these unknown players will even have a chance to dream of taking a game out of top 10 players.





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