The 2021 Badminton World Championships kicked off today in Huelva, Spain, and several of the main players of the national badminton team withdrew from the competition due to injury or need to rest, including Chen Long, who finished second in the men's singles at the Tokyo Olympics. However, Chen Long was not idle, he participated in the Li Yongbo Cup 3V3 Badminton Finals Exhibition Match with two-time Olympic women's singles champion and former national women's singles head coach Zhang Ning, and two-time Olympic men's doubles champion Fu Haifeng, and the three of them became partners to show off their skills.
After the Shaanxi National Games in September, Chen Long announced that he had entered a rest period and withdrew from a series of competitions such as the Sudirman Cup, Tang You Cup and World Championships. During this time, Chen Long returned to the family to accompany his family, especially his 2-year-old son Xiao Coffee, due to the training competition, Chen Long missed too much time with his son, and he also took advantage of this time to accompany his son to grow up. Due to not participating in the competition for a long time, Chen Long also deliberately applied for ranking protection from the BWF, and he is currently ranked sixth in the world when he returns to the field and still plays as the sixth in the world. For more than two months, Chen Long did not carry out systematic training, but went to the gym to maintain basic physical training, but yesterday he regained his racket and played a 3V3 exhibition match with two other Olympic champions, Zhang Ning and Fu Haifeng.
At noon yesterday, Chen Long and Fu Haifeng conducted a live broadcast of Lianmai, the two talked about their past, looking forward to the future, and the two met in the afternoon to attend the finals of the Li Yongbo Cup 3V3 Badminton Tournament, along with Zhang Ning, the women's singles champion of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The three of them also took a group photo together, Zhang Ning sat in the middle, two men sat on both sides, all three of them were smiling, especially Zhang Ning, the smile was very bright. As the only player in badminton history to win the Olympic women's singles championship, Zhang Ning became the head coach of the national badminton women's singles after retiring, but in the 2018 Uber Cup semifinals, the national badminton lost 2-3 to Thailand and did not qualify for the final, and after losing all three women's singles games, Zhang Ning was dismissed. However, zhang Ning did not leave badminton afterwards, she set up a company, participated in the promotion of amateur badminton competitions, and publicized and promoted badminton.
The three Olympic champions of the national feather appeared together, and the three of them formed a partnership to participate in a 3V3 exhibition match. Zhang Ning, Fu Haifeng and Chen Long formed the Olympic Olympic champion to accept the challenge of the Dream Team composed of three badminton enthusiasts. The three Olympic champions still have the same style on the court, and the handling of the ball is very delicate, they are very tacit in the case of taking the lead in 20-16 to get the field point, they very tacitly choose to be merciful, and finally lost to the Dream Team 20-21, ending the exhibition game.
After the game, all three looked relaxed, smiling and clapping their opponents. Like Zhang Ning, Fu Haifeng did not leave badminton after retiring, in addition to cooperating with the training tasks of the national team, he also carried out the promotion of badminton, and Chen Long, who appeared in the offseason, participated in it, but Chen Long set his sights on next year's Asian Games early, and perhaps soon he will return to the national feathers for systematic training.