Many players who are Chinese badminton Olympic champions are still doing related things after retirement, and for Yu Yang, her badminton ended in the fall of 2016, when she smashed the towel on the ground in front of head coach Li Yongbo, leaving only a lonely and desperate back in the world, and the 20-year badminton career gave her enough honor and gave her too many grievances.
It can be said that she is the strongest player in Chinese female badminton after Ge Fei, but a "fake game" and a "towel drop" almost make people forget the honors that belong to her.
Born on April 7, 1986 in Anshan, Liaoning Province, Yu Yang was a naughty bag when she was a child, and she was called a "tomboy" since she was a child, often bouncing glass balls, climbing trees, going to the house with boys... One day she would go to the sports school to see her cousin play table tennis, and the aunt suggested that Yu Yang's mother give her a sports program, saving her a lot of energy.
So, Yu Yang was sent to the side of coach Zhang Qiang, who was almost 10 years old.
Zhang Qiang looked at her and felt that the child's physical condition was good, "Let her try it and see if all aspects can keep up." "At that time, it was summer vacation, and my parents' idea was not to let Yu Yang practice after the summer vacation, and to go home and study seriously.
Zhang Qiang heard about this and paid a special visit, "Yu Yang has studied well in sports school, and if he grasps the practice and works hard, he should have a good future in the future." The couple finally decided to let Xiao Yang continue practicing.
Five years later, Yu Yang met his fateful partner Du Jing, a fellow countryman in Anshan, and in the 2000 Liaoning Provincial Games, their combination won the women's doubles championship, when Yu Yang was 14 years old and Du Jing was 16 years old. In the future, they will take to a bigger stage.
Six years later, Yu Yang slammed the door of the national team as the world youth championship mixed doubles and women's doubles champion, and in 2003 the pair became a regular partner. In 2006, Yu Yang and Du Jing won the Uber Cup and won the bronze medal at the World Championships at the end of the year, after which they became the stars of hope in the Chinese women's doubles, and together with Wei Yili/Zhang Yawen, Yang Wei/Zhang Jiewen, they formed the "three insurances" of the Chinese women's doubles project.
In 2008, the three Chinese groups went to the Beijing Olympic Games, and Yu Yang and Du Jing were the least popular or honored, the pair with short hair, with a fierce offensive and fierce dunk, in the case of two pairs of senior combinations folding, the final opponent was the No. 4 seedEd South Korean combination Lee Hyo-jeong / Lee Kyung-won.
On August 15, 2008, at the gymnasium of Beijing University of Technology, Yu Yang and Du Jing won the badminton women's doubles championship at the Beijing Olympic Games with a clean 2:0 victory over their opponents, achieving four consecutive championships for Chinese women's badminton, Yu Yang also won the bronze medal in the mixed doubles event with He Hanbin, the first time to participate, 22-year-old Yu Yang won a good result of 1 gold and 1 bronze.
But no one could have imagined that in the future, Yu Yang, the peak of the Chinese badminton doubles project ceiling player, would stop here, she had the heart but was powerless.
After the Olympic Games, with the retirement of veterans such as Gao Kun, Yang Wei, Zhang Jiewen and Wei Yili, Yu Yang and Du Jing sat firmly in the world's first position and became the new generation of leaders in China's badminton women's doubles.
In the Sudirman Cup, they helped the Chinese team achieve three consecutive championships with a record of 5 total victories, but in the 2010 Uber Cup, Yu Yang and Du Jing lost to the South Korean combination, resulting in the unexpected defeat of the Chinese team and the shattering of the dream of 7 consecutive championships.
Also in this year, when Zhao Yunlei / Tian Qing suddenly emerged and the newcomers gradually entered a better situation, the knee injury of the old partner Du Jing recurred, and by the end of 2011, she had basically withdrawn from the international stage, and the tricky problem faced by the coaching team was how to find a new partner for Yu Yang.
"Du Jing/Yu Yang was taken apart because Du Jing had many injuries and could not train normally. Du Jing's offensive ability is very strong, and the two double pressure speed is fast, but with the increase of Du Jing's injuries and the decline of offensive ability, the pair has to face a reorganization. Women's doubles head coach Chen Qichen once said.
At that time, the first factor for the coaching team to consider the personnel was to find another Du Jing for Yu Yang, and the coaching team finally chose Wang Xiaoli for Yu Yang, for the simple reason that "Wang Xiaoli has a strong offensive force, similar to Du Jing at that time."
In 2011, they teamed up to 11 titles, including the World Championships, and Yu Yang gave up the mixed doubles for the women's doubles gold medal in London.
They came to London as the top seeds in women's doubles, and their record against Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei in 2011 was 7 wins and 1 loss, and in 2011-2012 the two played 68 games, 66 wins and 2 losses, with a terrible winning rate of 97.06%.
Everything is laying out, and the duo will fail if they don't win the championship.
Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei is also the champion of the New Asian Games and the Asian Championships, ranking second in the world, which also gives Li Yongbo greater ambitions, he wants the chinese combination of the two teams to win the championship and runner-up, for which he can do whatever it takes.
When the London Olympics ended, Yu Yang said: "Why should the rules loopholes of the INTERNATIONAL BADMINTON make players pay... This is my last game. Goodbye to the International Badminton Federation, goodbye to my beloved badminton. ”
It all started with that weird women's doubles group stage.
Since Zhao Yunlei/Tian Qing's unexpected loss in the previous group stage can only qualify as the second in the group, if the two Teams Chinese combination will meet early, in order to prevent this from happening, the coaching team's tactic for Yang/Wang Xiaoli is to "use the rules to save physical strength and lose the game." ”
In other words, it is called "playing fake ball", and the Korean players on the side also think so, so there is a wonderful scene in the game that the players on both sides do not want to win, and a netizen summed up about the game: "Judging whether this is to release water has exceeded the IQ bottom line."
The audience almost all came to the top seed, the two sides staged a farce of taking turns to serve mistakes in the game, the most "intense" round only played four back and forth, smashing out of bounds, forcing off the net, serving mistakes, the constant boos that broke out on the scene have explained everything.
In the end, Yu Yang / Wang Xiaoli lost the game as she wished, and also lost her career, the International BFI held an emergency meeting to cancel Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli's qualifications, four years of hard work in vain, she may not understand why she knows that she has the ability to win but why she is out in this way.
She feels most indebted to her partner Wang Xiaoli, 24-year-old Wang Xiaoli should have ushered in their own Olympic Games, they spent 2 years to reach the world number one, but after a game became the laughing stock of the world.
In the end, Tian Qing / Zhao Yunlei won the championship, Zhao Yunlei opened a new era of Chinese doubles, the Chinese badminton team won hardware, the whole country rejoiced, only Yu Yang looked at the noisy five flavors not far away, and even the official media criticized: "Lose and lose, lose people and lose people at home." ”
"In the past, this topic has stopped." Whenever someone tried to comfort Yu Yang, she smiled and said that it was all over, and she didn't want to talk about it anymore, "Really any fragment doesn't want to remember." ”
She thought about retiring with that little bit of dignity, but eventually she said, "I'm going to take back what used to be mine." ”
In May 2013, Yu Yang announced in a high profile that he would impact the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, standing next to her was still Wang Xiaoli, the ace partner was reorganized, and they opened their own harvest mode, the All England Champion, the Asian Championship Champion, the Masters Champion, the China Open Korea and China Champion... With 46 wins in 50 matches and 6 titles, the women's doubles ceiling remains unbeatable.
But everything in 2015 lies in the change, everything happened almost in 2010,
At that time, Wang Xiaoli's right elbow joint injury caused edema, and underwent surgery in May, at this time there was still a year before the opening of the Olympic Games, the dominance of the two declined in the second half of the year, in September of that year, the coaching team decided to let Yu Yang and Tang Yuanwei in 1994 matchmaking, on December 13, 2015, Wang Xiaoli posted retirement, Yu Yang continued to move forward with the dream of two people.
But obviously, Tang Yuanzhuo was neither Wang Xiaoli nor Du Jing.
The Olympic points race has passed the halfway points, in order to grab the points two non-stop competition, they came to Rio as the No. 2 seed, at this time Zhao Yunlei / Tian Qing because of the dog blood incident has been disbanded, twin sisters Hua Luo win / Luo Yu substituted to play, but the strength is mediocre, Yu Yang and Tang Yuanwei shoulder the heavy responsibility of winning gold.
They no longer have to be forced to concede the ball like four years ago, and Yu Yang also has a strong heart in her heart, she wants to prove herself too much, she has won so many championships at the age of 30 but is almost overwhelmed by a "fake ball".
In the semi-finals, Tang Yuanwei's body consumption was extremely large because of the continuous fever, the strain communication on the field was not effective, the decisive game was lost at 19:21, Yu Yang lost, she silently packed up her belongings, there was no expression on her face, it may be a kind of discouraged despair.
The bronze medal match pair has no intention of fighting, the first set 8:21 lightning crash, the second set of the suspension, coaches Tian Bingyi and Li Yongbo communicated with her to let her move, but she directly threw the towel in her hand on the ground, the fourth place result is the worst record of Chinese women's doubles since 1992.
Yu Yang may not have thought that this worst record was on his head, and after the game she said: "I feel relieved, and it is finally over." Although I didn't play very well today, it was a relief for me. ”
In that game, the two had almost zero communication, everyone could see the mustard of the two, Tang Yuanwei said: "Yu Yang has always been very positive, but from last night to today's game, and I rarely communicate, we can only communicate tactical arrangements through the coach, I didn't expect to play today why it is still like this, I think the Olympic bronze medal game this kind of game, she did not mobilize enough, mental state has problems." ”
No matter what the truth is for Yu Yang, in fact, her career is over after the semi-final defeat, "It is useless to blame herself and apologize after the game, athletes have to speak with state on the field, and it is your business to die or live off the field, there is no meaning... I won't hold on any longer, I won't come back! ”
The eight-month-old duo eventually fell apart, without any goodbye.
Originally hoped to give it a go, but in the end of regret, she finally failed to end her career with victory, but in any case, her name has been engraved into the history of Chinese badminton, the 2021 BWF selection of the history of the top 5 female doubles players, Yu Yang ranked first with 41 championships, she has a brilliant resume, London that match-fixing has become a stigma that she can't escape, she is also a victim, but who cares?
2012 fake game, 2016 throwing towel, it can be said that Yu Yang in a piece of criticism in the retreat, she created a brilliant era, but also wrote a dismal and even humiliating history, she was once full of spirit, but ultimately helpless, badminton once taught her to forge ahead and hope, but also trained her low-key and pragmatic, she may just be a chess piece, but there is no way back on the arena, she may also regret her choice, but as she said, "self-blame after the game, apology is useless, Athletes have to speak in state on the field. ”
After retiring, she started a clothing business, had her own e-commerce team, rarely appeared in public, and even rarely participated in badminton activities, and the genius withdrew in controversy and retired after exiting.