1. Badminton enters the Olympic Games
For ninety-nine percent of sports, olympic champions are the highest honors and a lifelong dream of athletes. But badminton has also gone through a tortuous road to become an official Olympic sport.
As early as 1970, the then International Badminton Federation (IBF) began to prepare for badminton to enter the Olympic Games, and it was able to become a performance event at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972, but in the end it failed because badminton was not promoted and the international badminton world at that time was very chaotic.
On May 26, 1981, the members of the World Badminton Association returned to the International Badminton Federation, and the World Badminton Federation was officially merged with the International Badminton Federation. The new International Badminton Federation (IBF) also ushered in a new era of badminton development. Finally, at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, badminton once again became a performance event, and received a warm response, and finally in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, badminton officially became an Olympic event, but in the 1992 Olympic Games, badminton only men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles four events, to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games added mixed doubles.
The rules of the Olympic Games have also been changing, in addition to synchronizing the rules of the International Badminton Federation, but also in the 2012 London Olympic Games, from the original full elimination system to the group stage + knockout mode, but there was a handicap scandal in the same session. At this Tokyo Olympic Games, Momota Kendou successfully won the best signing position under the blessing of the host's "advantage", but he was out of the group stage, which was also a laugh.
2. Badminton career
Ji Xinpeng was born in Changsha in 1977, at the age of 7, he was favored by the sports school coach to start practicing badminton, at the age of 12, he left his hometown, joined the Xiamen badminton team, and began professional badminton training. Around the many masters of the national team, the obscure Ji Xinpeng seems very ordinary, and Ji Xinpeng, who had ambitions when he first entered the national team, did not know his future for a long time.
Ji Xinpeng
Until the end of 1998, Tang Xianhu served as the head coach of the national team men's singles, and Ji Xinpeng ushered in his own Bole. Under the guidance of Tang Lao, Ji Xinpeng's varied and sydney-like techniques have been carried forward, and the strength has also been greatly improved. Ji Xinpeng, who has been in the national team for three years, reached the final four of the 2000 All England Open and won the first open championship of his career at the Japan Open, although it was not enough to make him famous, but he finally gained a foothold in the first team of the national team.
Iii. The Sydney Miracle
For many, the Sydney Olympics are the best memories. The picture of Kong Linghui, Lao Wa and Liu Guoliang on the podium is a classic that is difficult to replicate; on the weightlifting field, Zhan Xugangwang staged a shocking reversal; and the Chinese legion reached the top three of the gold medal list for the first time with 28 gold medals. For badminton, there is one of the darkest dark horses in the history of the Olympic Games.
Zhan Xu just reversed the sky
5th place in the 1996 China Open, 1999 Dutch Open runner-up, 2000 Swiss Open runner-up, 2000 All England Open 3rd place, 2000 Japan Open champion. This is the career resume of Ji Xinpeng before the Sydney Olympic Games, to be honest, this achievement is really not worth mentioning in the Chinese badminton team with great masters, and even for the first team, it is a bit difficult to take, but it is he who won this valuable men's singles gold medal.
At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the confident Chinese team suffered Waterloo and lost all four events; in Atlanta, it was the doubles queen Ge Fei/Gu Jun who won the only women's doubles gold medal. For the badminton hegemon China team, such a result is difficult to accept, so it aims to complete a breakthrough at the Sydney Olympics.
Ge Fei/Gu Jun
In all five projects, the most difficult is the men's singles and men's doubles, when the national feather men's team was at a historical low, Indonesia just completed the Thomas Cup four consecutive championships, in the men's event has absolute dominance, the world's first genius Tawfik, the world's third old devil Ye Chengwan, and the world's second Denmark Pitgaid, it can be said that like a mountain in front of the national feather, it is difficult to overcome. And The injury of Sun Jun, a single in China, has cast a shadow on this expedition.
But it is precisely in this case that the times create heroes, ji Xinpeng accurately grasped all opportunities, did not waste a little luck, and created the Sydney miracle.
Four. The road to the Olympics
Regarding the list of the Olympic Games, sun jun, who was the champion of the 1999 World Championships in China at that time, although there was a hidden danger of injury, he still deservedly won a place. At the age of 21, Xia Xuanze came out at the All England Open in March and won the championship, which became the future hope of the national feather at that time, and naturally won a place. As for the third place, Dong Jiong and Chen Hong, who won the 1996 World Cup and the 1998 Asian Games, have a chance. Although Ji Xinpeng made great progress in 2000 and won an open championship, this achievement can only be said to be insignificant in the national team.
In the end, Ji Xinpeng got this precious opportunity, and there were rumors that it was because the coaching staff thought that these three people had no chance to win the championship, and only Ji Xinpeng had a victory in the face of the world's top three at that time, so he decided to give it a go and adjusted the list in the last half hour. Whether it is true or false is impossible to verify (personally I think this statement is false, I have checked a lot of information, at least Tawfik has never lost to Ji Xinpeng), but it turns out that this is a correct choice.
After a fight, Sun Jun, Xia Xuanze and Ji Xinpeng all successfully reached the top 8, and the same Ye Chengwan, Tawfik, and Pitt gad, the three strongest opponents, also successfully advanced, and every subsequent game will be extremely difficult.
In the quarterfinals, facing the championship favorite Tawfik, almost no one thought that Ji Xinpeng could go any further, and in the 2000 soup cup, it was Tawfik who defeated Ji Xinpeng. But Ji Xinpeng, who had no baggage, put down his posture and carefully studied Tawfik's technical style before the game and the coaching staff. Tawfik's net-front rubbing feels unparalleled in the world, and Ji Xinpeng avoids this, not high or short, that is, he draws with him. Tawfik's pre-net skills can not be used, the killing power is also greatly reduced, the whole game can not find a way to deal with, 2-0, Ji Xinpeng simply and neatly won the game, upset to reach the final four.
The semi-final opponent is Denmark's King Pete Gad, perhaps because of the confidence of winning the quarter-finals, or perhaps because of the recent victory in the All England. Ji Xinpeng, who came up in this game, played very actively and aggressively, with a large number of splits, nets in front of the net, and backcourt kills. My personal feeling of watching the first set was that Gade did not cause much trouble to Ji Xinpeng, and the situation of the game has been firmly controlled by Ji Xinpeng, and he easily won the first set 15-9.
In the second set, Ji Xinpeng may have experienced a decline in physical strength, Gade also increased aggression, chasing the ball and continuous shorting, Ji Xinpeng began to have a large number of mistakes, and rare two out-of-bounds ball judgment errors, came up to be beaten to 9-0, and finally 15-7, Gad pulled back a set.
Entering the decider, both sides let go of a fight, and fought for more than ten minutes in the 4-2, 4-3 scores, which was a duel between physical and psychological limits, and Ji Xinpeng had the upper hand. As Gade returned the ball to the net, Ji Xinpeng threw away the badminton racket and celebrated with a raised arm, 15-9, he made history and successfully reached the final.
On the other hand, Ye Chengwan Lianke Sun Jun and Xia Xuanze also reached the final, he is 28 years old, he will never let go of this last chance to win the Olympic championship.
At the beginning of the final, Ye Chengwan may have valued this gold medal too much, compared to Ji Xinpeng, who was calm, he appeared to be tied hands and feet, his steps were messy, his landing point was inaccurate, and there were inexplicable mistakes that could be said to be substandard. And Ji Xinpeng became more and more courageous, jumping and attacking, splitting the Internet, appearing to be very active, and came up to beat Ye Chengwan an 8-1. In the end, 15-4, the big score won the next set.
In the second set, Ye Chengwan adjusted his form, and the two scores alternately rose until 13-10, and Ji Xinpeng fell behind by 3 points. Although Ji Xinpeng was behind, his confidence and morale were unprecedentedly high, and he would raise his arms to celebrate loudly after each goal was scored, completely suppressing the Indonesians in momentum.
Just as the so-called narrow road meets the brave to win, in the next few rounds, Ji Xinpeng took the initiative to change, and the ball was greatly suspended in front of the net, while Ye Chengwan was afraid of his hands and feet although he was ahead, he has been passively defending, and began to make continuous mistakes under the pressure of Ji Xinpeng. With a retreat to kill the sideline, Ye Chengwan received the ball and went off the net, Ji Xinpeng threw away the racket and cheered and celebrated.
The dark horse is black to the end.
Ye Chengwan (left) Ji Xinpeng (center) Xia Xuanze (right)
5. Epilogue
After the Olympic Games, to be honest, Ji Xinpeng did not have any good results, and it is precisely for this reason that people said that he was like fireworks, suddenly appearing to shine the world but falling in a flash, and retreating, and even more that he was only lucky to get this championship.
In my opinion, what luck is there, three games against the world's top three can still be lucky? This is the first badminton men's singles gold medal in the history of the Chinese Olympic Games, Ji Xinpeng exhausted all the strength and skills of his career, with 120% of the physical state, technical state, mental state, washed down three super players, three once the world number one.
This championship is not only not luck, but a manifestation of absolute strength. Defeated all the world masters to win the championship, and all three games were the upper hand, and the final and quarter-finals could even be said to be crushing victories. And this crown is really of great significance, he declared to the people of Indonesia is not invincible, Ye Chengwan is not, Nor is Tawfik, writing a footnote for the strong rise of the national men's team.
The strong are not necessarily the winners, but the winners must be the strong. In Sydney, Ji Xinpeng is the world number one in badminton.