Beijing time, December 24: There are still 7 days, 2021 is coming to an end, the Chinese national badminton team has also experienced a long season back in China in quarantine, and some players have begun winter training. This year, Kuniwa participated in many major competitions such as the Tokyo Olympic Games, Sudirman Cup, Uber Cup, Thomas Cup, World Championships and National Games. We can see from the results of the competition that the women's team is gradually recovering, and the men's team is facing the problem of replacing the old and the new. Today we will talk about the topic of Chinese badminton.
2021 is the most arduous year for the Chinese national badminton team since its establishment, and it has participated in the Tokyo Olympic Games, the National Games, the Sudirman Cup, the Thomas Cup, the Uber Cup and the Badminton World Championships in the second half of the year, especially in the second half of the year. Due to the many problems of the Chinese badminton team in the past two years, the Olympic Games did not get a full quota of seats to participate, so before the game, everyone did not have much expectations for the national badminton in the Olympic Games. Unexpectedly, in the badminton competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games, The Chinese badminton team reached the final in all five events and won two championships, winning a total of 2 gold and 4 silver to rank first among the teams, which was also the second time that the national badminton reached the final of all events at the Olympic Games. Subsequently, he also won the Sudirman Cup to defend his title, defeated Japan in the Uber Cup to regain the championship after 5 years, and the men's team also reached the final and finally lost to Indonesia and finished second. The Chinese team, which was teamed up with young players, won 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze in the world championships to end this year's competition. We have seen some eye-catching things, and we need to face up to some problems.
First of all, let's look at some positive things, the Chinese badminton team won gold medals in women's singles and mixed doubles at the Tokyo Olympic Games. In particular, the women's singles is the second gold medal in this event since the London Olympics, and Chen Yufei also achieved a gorgeous turn at the Olympic Games to prove her ability at the World Series. This also made the Chinese women's singles competitive again in the world competition, and then Chen Yufei also won the gold medal in the competition of the National Games to prove that she was a women's single sister. In the Sudirman Cup and Uber Cup matches, Chen Yufei played as a single, and also made a great contribution to the Chinese team's victory. Although he gave up the world championship competition due to injury, He Bingjiao and Zhang Yiman both reached the semi-finals to win the bronze medal and saw the future of China's women's singles.
Women's doubles has always been the traditional dominant sport of Chinese badminton teams, and Ge Fei/Gu Jun won the first Olympic gold of the Chinese badminton team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, which also made up for the regret of Nong Qunhua/Guan Weizhen who suffered an unfair penalty and won the silver medal four years ago. Subsequently, in four consecutive Olympic Games, the Chinese women's doubles won the Olympic gold medal, and in 2000, the Sydney stadium also raised three five-star red flags at the same time, which is the only event besides table tennis that raised three five-star red flags at the same time at the Olympic Games. At the beginning of the Rio cycle, there were discordant factors within the Chinese women's doubles, and the contradictions in the private lives of athletes caused the performance to decline in the Rio Olympic Games and even did not touch the medals. At the beginning of the Tokyo cycle, the women's doubles pair only had Chen Qingchen/ Jia Yifan, which was relatively stable, and the other women's doubles combinations were not very stable. At the Tokyo Olympics, the Fanchen group, which won the World Championships, reached the final, and lost to the Indonesian team Polly/Lahayu in the final to win the silver medal. In the subsequent competitions, they sang all the way to help the Chinese team win the Su Cup to win the You Cup and won the only gold medal for China in the World Championships. We also look forward to their realization of their Olympic dream at the Paris Olympic Games and regaining the confidence of the Chinese women's doubles.
Another event that won gold medals at the Olympics was mixed doubles, which was actually the biggest advantage of the Chinese badminton team in the entire Tokyo cycle. Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong, Wang Yilu/Huang Dongping have always been ranked in the top two in the world. In the Tokyo Olympic Games, these two pairs also lived up to expectations and reached the final, and finally in the final, the Wang Yilu / Huang Dongping combination defeated the IELTS combination 2-1 in three sets to win the gold medal, which was also the first gold of the Chinese badminton team at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Subsequently, in the competition of the National Games, the two pairs played again, and the Yellow Duck combination won the championship again and became the first place in China's mixed doubles. Wang Yilu/Huang Dongping participated in the Su Cup and Tang You Cup competitions and played well, while Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong participated in the World Championships after resting, and the final result was not very good. According to the latest news, Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong will be paired during the winter training, Guoyu will create a new combination to impact the Paris Olympic Games, and Wang Yilu/Huang Dongping will continue to be partners, expecting that the project will remain strong in the Paris cycle.
The situation of the Chinese men's team is more troublesome, first of all, we have to see that the men's singles represented the Chinese team in the Tokyo Olympic Games is Chen Long and Shi Yuqi, Chen Long finally reached the final and lost to Anseron and won the silver medal, he also collected three colors of medals in three Olympic games, and the 33-year-old Chen Long basically ended his national team career. As a rising star, Shi Yuqi returned from injury and took the last train of the Olympic Games, and performed generally in the Olympic Games. In the Sudirman Cup match, Shi Yuqi performed well, but in the Thomas Cup match, Shi Yuqi withdrew from the game after falling behind 5-20 in the match with Japan's Kento Momota, which shocked the badminton world, and his negative remarks after the game also triggered everyone's condemnation. It is reported that Shi Yuqi has been banned from the national feathers, and it is unknown when the ban will be lifted or whether it will be permanently banned. At the World Championships, Li Shifeng, Lu Guangzu and Zhao Junpeng did not play very well, and Guoyu also created the worst record in men's doubles since the 1995 World Championships. With two and a half years to go until the Paris Olympics, how the men's singles will face it is a big question.
Finally, we have to look at the men's doubles, the traditional weakness of the Chinese badminton team in the Tokyo Olympics only Li Junhui / Liu Yuchen pair of a pair of players, they all the way to the final and finally lost to the Chinese Taipei team to win the silver medal. After the National Games, Li Junhui announced his retirement, so that the two-tower combination of China's men's doubles no longer existed. The performance of the men's doubles in the Sudirman Cup and Thomas Cup is also uncertain, and the world championship He Jiting/ Tan Qiang combination that came to the end of the year brought surprises to everyone to reach the final and finally won the runner-up. However, this runner-up is not easy to come by, and what kind of combination to create in the men's doubles in the Paris cycle is worth considering the coaching staff. The effort required by the Chinese men's doubles to return to the world's first-class is no smaller than that of the men's singles.
The athletes of the year are very hard, there are surprises and regrets, I hope they can face the problems in the winter training and train well, and have a better performance in the Paris cycle. We will also continue to pay attention to bringing you reports about the national feather.