On the evening of May 12, Beijing time, Xia Xuanze, the head coach of the singles team of the Chinese badminton team, confirmed that Chen Long had retired. Chen Long's official retirement marks the end of the era of the national badminton men's singles, and the days ahead will be more difficult and difficult. Looking back on Chen Long's career, it is inevitable to compare him with Lin Li. Even if Chen Long wins the Olympic gold medal, the overall reputation is still a bit different from Lin Lee, even if it is only compared with Dato. But Chen Long has also reached the top height in the world, and after Chen Long, the national badminton men's singles will have to cultivate another player of this level, I don't know how many years it will take to wait.
He is the first person to chase the legend of Lin Li
Lin Li will always be the top legend in the badminton world, and Lin Dan won the double lap Grand Slam, including all the honors of his era. Li Zongwei accompanied him, and the runner-up of the world's top competition almost won it all over again. Guoyu excavated and cultivated Chen Long, which is to find a successor for Lin Dan, and Chen Long completed the multi-year strategic deployment of Guoyu's coaching staff at the most critical moment of the 2016 Rio Olympics - suppressing Li Zongwei again and winning the Olympic men's singles championship for Guoyu.
Lin Dan is invincible, and in the early stage, it is also necessary to gradually use the competition to temper. Including top team competitions such as the soup cup and the Su cup, Lin Dan has almost no hard injuries. Chen Long in previous years, many times gave people the feeling that the ball style was relatively soft, and it was hard when it was critical. The most typical example is the 2016 soup cup quarterfinals, because Chen Long lost 1-2 to Sun Wanhu, resulting in the loss of the Sino-Korean war in Guoyu, and missed the semifinals of the soup cup for the first time since 1982.
At that time, the Rio Olympics were about to be played, and everyone was very heartbroken about the fiasco of the soup cup of Guoya. The next day, Li Yongbo stood up and said, "You can't compare Chen Long with Lin Dan, it's unfair." Li Yongbo knew in his heart that Lin Dan was obviously going downhill at that time, and Chen Long could not be absolutely stable every time, but at the critical time, Chen Long was the only trustworthy man in the men's singles at that time.
In the field of the World Championships and the Olympic Games, Guoyu can be said to be "strictly guarded" against Li Zongwei. Li Zongwei is almost 1 year older than Lin Dan, but he has not realized his dream of world championship for many years, and he has never given up his pursuit of this original intention. The Rio Olympics were the best time for Li Zongwei to compete for the title, but Guoyu let Lin Dan spend three sets with him in the semifinals, which greatly consumed his physical strength and energy, and the younger Chen Long defeated Li Zongwei in straight sets in the final to win gold. Chen Long and Li Zongwei's historical record is not superior, Chen Long is 13-15. In the Rio final, Guoyu was the ultimate effort of collective wisdom + Chen Long, and Li Zongwei was pressed to the position of the world's second oldest. And a similar scene happened in the men's singles finals of the previous 2014 and 2015 World Championships.
Unfortunately, Chen Long actually had no successor
Lindane is unique, and it is a historical blessing that Guoya has Lin Dane. In the 2014 and 2015 World Championships and 2016 Rio, Chen Long did a good job of taking over Lin Dan's banner and defending the supreme glory of the national badminton men's singles. However, after Chen Long, Guoya has not yet unearthed a relatively suitable successor to Chen Long.
Shi Yuqi before, Li Shifeng now, can no longer reach the height of the men's singles champion of the World Championships, and it is very good to occasionally emerge in the all-England arena. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, 32-year-old veteran Chen Long dragged his blood-blistered injured foot to compete in Musashino, and finally reached the final and lost to the younger Anselon in the badminton arena to win a silver medal.
As early as the 2012 London Olympics, Chen Long won the bronze medal in the men's singles. It is also a miracle that he won the gold, silver and bronze medals in the men's singles at the Career Olympics. And to be honest, the silver medal in Tokyo, Chen Long has reached the limit, and it is also the last afterglow of the glory of the national men's singles in the past 20 years.
The Asian Games are one of the few regrets for Chen Long, who failed to win the men's singles title in three Asian Games, resulting in only one step away from the Grand Slam. At the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, young player Chen Long won the men's team championship with his teammates. At that time, it was Lin Dan and Chen Jin who participated in the men's singles, and even Bao Chunlai did not qualify for the men's singles. Four years later in Incheon, Chen Long lost to Lin Dan in the final, achieving the latter's double-lap Grand Slam feud. In 2018, Chen Long unexpectedly lost to Jinting 0-2 in the quarterfinals, leaving eternal regrets.
Chen Long has won nine world championships in his career, including one Olympic gold medal, two world championship men's singles champions, and three Soup Cup and Su Cup titles. The national badminton men's singles are after Chen Long, which does not mean that there is no hope. However, it will take time to truly appear a new banner bearer whose comprehensive strength and combat power realm are close to Chen Long.