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Looking at the badminton players around the world, "Desperate Sanlang" Li Zongwei and "Super Dan" Lin Dan can be called a rare pair of "twin stars".
The two are not only evenly matched opponents in the arena, but also have almost the same choice of love partner, which can almost be said to be a double harvest of love and career.
Li Zongwei and Lin Dan
But on June 13, 2019, for the badminton industry, it was a sudden "Black Thursday", and the beloved badminton "Dato' --- Li Zongwei" regrettably retired, which caused an uproar from all walks of life in Malaysia.
It is clear that Li Zongwei and Lin Dan always fall behind, why is he also called the "uncrowned king"? Why do fans like to call him "second brother"? Now that 5 years have passed, has Li Zongwei succeeded in fighting cancer?
Li Zongwei
Badminton chases dreams
Throughout the world sports world, it is very rare to be able to compete in the arena for such a long time, and Li Zongwei and Lin Dan are the most special pair of "happy and unhappy wrongdoers", and several peak duels between the two have left countless classic scenes in the world badminton.
From 2000 to 2018, Li Zongwei and Lin Dan had as many as 40 wonderful confrontations (not counting the youth competition and informal commercial exhibition matches), and the scores of the games were glued to each other and did not give in to each other, which was a famous "Lin Li War"!
Some people say that Lin Dan's "Grand Slam" really depends on Li Zongwei's "relentless pursuit", and the similar age makes the careers of the two almost overlap, but before the "Lin Li War", Li Zongwei was also the brightest rising star in the world badminton.
Li Zongwei and Lin Dan
In 1999, 17-year-old Li Zongwei won the championship in Malaysia and became famous, but at that time, the Malaysian badminton scene had the world's No. 1 men's singles Huang Zonghan, Li Zongwei could only temporarily gather his edge, but he also wore the national shirt this year.
Not long after, Li Zongwei represented Malaysia at the Badminton World Junior Championships in Guangzhou, China, and he was expected to be the best of the best, and in the semi-finals, he was defeated by Indian rising star Sony to finish third.
However, this match unexpectedly revealed Li Zongwei's potential, and Malaysia's national team coach began to focus on his development.
Li Zongwei in his youth
After entering the millennium, Li Zongwei's badminton level gradually improved, winning the men's singles runner-up at the Malaysian Open Badminton Championship, and then winning the third place in the Dutch Badminton Open, advancing to the last 8 of the Danish Open.
At that time, Lin Dan had already entered the Chinese national team and officially opened the road to dominating the world badminton, and the two met for the first time after the 2000 Tokyo Asian Games, Lin Dan narrowly defeated Li Zongwei 17:16, and the two formed an indissoluble bond.
The-for-tat competitive confrontation in the 2004 Tom Cup badminton competition officially kicked off the competition between Lin Dan and Li Zongwei that had lasted for more than ten years.
The "Lin and Lee War" kicked off
Li Zongwei, who lost in the arena, was very frustrated, at this time, in order to help him improve his skills, the original local coach was replaced by Chinese coach Li Mao, under the careful guidance of the new coach, Li Zongwei's skills improved significantly, and his results also rose steadily.
In 2005, Li Zongwei won the third place in the World Badminton Championships and the men's singles championship of the Malaysian Open, gradually replacing the former national player Huang Jihan and becoming the male singles brother of Malaysian badminton.
Soon after, Lee was firmly ranked No. 1 in the world rankings, becoming Malaysia's third world-ranked men's singles player.
Li Zongwei
Perhaps success came too suddenly and smoothly, Li Zongwei's mentality was a little erratic, and in the quarterfinals of the Madrid Badminton Championships, he lost to his old friend--- Bao Chunlai of China, and the sudden frustration sent him into a low point of collapse.
Not only that, on the eve of the Doha Asian Games, Li Zongwei unfortunately suffered another car accident and received 6 stitches in his head.
After the game, coach Li Mao, who had been accompanying him to the top of the world, was also replaced, Li Zongwei completely fell into the lowest point of his career, almost slumped, but the new coach and girlfriend Huang Miaozhu have been accompanying and encouraging him, and Li Zongwei was finally reborn.
Li Zongwei
"The Uncrowned King"
At the beginning of 2007, the long-dormant Li Zongwei participated in the Indonesia Open Badminton Championship, passed five levels and cut six generals all the way, entered the final, and faced China's Bao Chunlai, and in the end, Li Zongwei won the championship in one fell swoop, and announced his return as the king.
In the subsequent Sudirman Cup, Li Zongwei played beyond normal, defeating his fierce rival Lin Dan, but was unable to turn the tide, and the Malaysian team still lost 1:4 to the Chinese team.
However, during the long competition, Li Zongwei also suffered from knee pain, but fortunately, after a period of recovery, he returned to his favorite badminton battlefield.
Li Zongwei
A year later, Li Zongwei won the men's singles championship of the BWF Super Series Finals for the first time, embarking on the journey to dominate the Open.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Li Zongwei was also invited to serve as the Olympic torchbearer in Malaysia, and made it all the way to the final in the Olympic competition.
Li Zongwei
Originally, Li Zongwei and his girlfriend Huang Miaozhu met in the finals, but Huang Miaozhu stopped at the quarterfinals, and he also lost to Lin Dan again in the finals, and both became the beads in the arena, coincidentally, Lin Dan, who won the first place in the arena, and his girlfriend Xie Xingfang also failed to meet at the top.
However, after losing this competition, the relationship between Li Zongwei and his girlfriend entered a freezing point, and once it was close to breaking up, and Li Zongwei fell into a state of anxiety again.
Li Zongwei
For Li Zongwei, 2009 seemed like a watershed.
At the beginning of the year, Li Zongwei had just won the men's singles title at the Malaysia Open and the men's singles title in the BWF Super Series Finals, but he lost to Lin Dan again in the All England Championships, and half a year later, he and his girlfriend Huang Miaozhu announced that they parted ways.
The love scene was frustrated, the competition was scorching, and Li Zongwei and his old rival Lin Dan's "double hero competition" also gradually entered the white heat.
Double Heroes
In 2010, Li Zongwei became the first player to win three consecutive championships in the BWF Super Series Finals, but in the same year, he defeated Lin Dan again and won the runner-up.
It seems that as long as there is Lin Dan's arena, Li Zongwei is always suppressed and unable to fight back, even if he won 6 super championships in a row, set a record of 8 years and 7 championships, and even dominated the first place in the BWF rankings in a row.
Li Zongwei
But Lin Dan is like a magic spell, so that Li Zongwei can not break through, once in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Li Zongwei desperately wanted to defeat his old enemy Lin Dan, but the more he wanted to win, the more his mentality collapsed, and he lost one after another in the arena.
Li Zongwei, who has repeatedly lost battles, will reflect on himself after each competition, adjust his mentality, win Lin Dan, and become his only motivation to become the Olympic champion.
Finally, at the Rio Olympics eight years later, Li Zongwei successfully counterattacked and turned around, finally defeated Lin Dan, and completed his first small goal.
Li Zongwei
It's just that there are talents in Jiangshan generation, and when he was only one step away from the championship, Li Zongwei unfortunately lost in the confrontation with China's Chen Long's peak, and that year, Lin Dan was criticized for being arrogant and defeated, and Li Zongwei was embarrassed by fans.
In fact, as an old opponent for 19 years, Lin Dan and Li Zongwei's achievements in the badminton arena have long been comparable.
After years of hard work, Lin Dan has become the only "double-lap Grand Slam" player in the world badminton, but the BWF points ranking is far less than Li Zongwei, who has dominated the list for a long time.
Li Zongwei
Although Lin Dan is in the game, Li Zongwei is always reduced to the "second oldest man of the millennium", but he is loved by fans and is often affectionately called "second brother" by fans.
However, Li Zongwei also relied on his tenacious fighting spirit of never admitting defeat, continuously won all the BWF Super Open championships, won the All England Championship four times in a row, and was known as the well-deserved "uncrowned king".
Over the years, Lee Chong Wei has won the title of "Dato' in Malaysia" with his achievements, and he is also the first person in Malaysia to receive this honor as an athlete, but since ancient times, heroes have always been unrewarded, even Lee Chong Wei is no exception.
Li Zongwei
"Black Thursday"
As the saying goes: "The moon is cloudy and sunny, and people have bad luck", just when Li Zongwei was actively preparing for the 2019 World Championships, a general physical examination blocked him from the gate of the arena.
In July 2018, the "early nasopharyngeal cancer" on the diagnosis list in his hand, just five big words, pulled Li Zongwei into the darkest moment of his life, and also made fans who had deep hopes for him worry.
The sudden bad news made Li Zongwei overwhelmed, he was unwilling to accept the cruel reality, but the constant pain in his throat made him unable to ignore it, and Li Zongwei had to give up preparing for war and receive treatment.
Li Zongwei
While Malaysia's 30 million people were looking forward to Lee's strong return, they waited for the most collapsed "Black Thursday", and on June 13, 2019, Lee officially announced his retirement.
Heroes always cherish each other, watching the once strongest opponent suddenly leave, Lin Dan shared the song "Friends Don't Cry" on his social account: "In the future, I will play alone, and there will be no one to accompany me." ”
Although Li Zongwei and Lin Dan spared no effort in the field, they were close friends in private, Li Zongwei once quickly praised Lin Dan as the best player, and Lin Dan also bluntly said that Li Zongwei was the biggest driving force for his hard work all the way.
Lin Dan regretted Li Zongwei's retirement
Perhaps it was Li Zongwei's departure that made it difficult for Lin Dan to find the feeling of a chess opponent, in 2020, Lin Dan announced his retirement from the auction, and Li Zongwei, who is a "Gemini", shared "Goodbye": "No regrets youth, bless you, my greatest opponent Lin Dan." ”
At this point, the golden age of badminton belonging to "Super Dan" and "Desperate Li" came to an end, Lin Dan connected the major screens with his badminton fame, but Li Zongwei embarked on the most difficult new journey --- fight against illness.
Li Zongwei sent a message to bless Lin Dan
Fight the sick
At that time, due to years of exercise, Li Zongwei's physical fitness was strong, and he could fight the road of self-help against the disease, but Li Zongwei took an extremely difficult journey, and in nearly 1 year of treatment, the torture of illness made Li Zongwei stand up, and his life almost hung in the balance.
In order to better fight cancer, but also to return to the battlefield of chasing dreams, Li Zongwei followed the doctor's advice and chose the most advanced "proton therapy".
However, Malaysia's medical technology is limited, and in desperation, Li Zongwei decided to leave his hometown with his wife and go to Taiwan, China's treasure island, for treatment.
At the beginning of the treatment, Li Zongwei could barely endure the pain caused by chemotherapy, but after 3 weeks, his throat was all ulcerated due to the side effects of chemotherapy, and he once reached the point where he could not swallow, and even drinking water was very difficult.
Although Li Zongwei was tormented by illness and had no appetite, he still had to consume enough food and nutrients to maintain his physical functions.
Li Zongwei recalled
However, every swallowing process made Li Zongwei unbearable, and even sometimes the air crossed his throat, he could feel a hot pain, making him unable to speak normally, such a bad situation made this "uncrowned king" who had gone through thousands of storms collapse.
What broke Li Zongwei the most was that chemotherapy had unspeakably serious side effects, and he often had to swallow a little liquid food after spraying anesthetics, which made him often cry secretly alone, unable to face himself.
Li Zongwei recalled
Fortunately, after 33 times of devilish electrotherapy, Li Zongwei's nasopharyngeal cancer gradually healed, and I have to say that "proton therapy" is indeed the most preferred treatment plan, but its cost is also quite amazing.
In just 33 chemotherapy sessions, Li Zongwei's treatment cost was as high as 9.6 million, not including the trivial expenses of daily recovery and care, although as a Malaysian "Dato", Li Zongwei earned a lot of money, but it also made him lose his vitality and bleeding.
Li Zongwei fell ill
The only luck is that Li Zongwei married a virtuous wife, and when he was fighting the disease, her wife was always by his side, carefully taking care of his daily life, and whenever he was in deep pain, her wife would pull him back from the brink of despair with firm optimism.
Not only that, but his wife also became the pillar of the whole family, supporting Li Zongwei and his children with his weak and strong shoulders.
When Li Zongwei recovered, he thanked his wife more than once at the press conference for her perseverance, and the 23-year love between him and his wife was even more moving.
Li Zongwei and his wife
Bamboo horses around plums
On October 21, 1982, Li Zongwei was born in Penang, Malaysia, his ancestral home is Nan'an, Fujian, China, before Li Zongwei was born, he already had three brothers and sisters, he is the youngest child in the family, and he is very favored.
At first, Li Zongwei liked to play basketball and entered the state team training, but the long hours of wind and sun tanned him, and he was constantly injured, and his mother, who felt sorry for his youngest son, ordered him not to continue playing basketball.
Later, Li Zongwei, who had nothing to do, began to contact badminton under the influence of his father, but unexpectedly, Li Zongwei achieved very bright results at a young age, and also met his lover Huang Miaozhu because of badminton, but the road to this relationship was not smooth.
Like Lee Chong Wai, Wong Myo Chu is also a Malaysian badminton player and was once the top seed in Malaysia's women's singles.
The two met in 2000 and fell in love for a long time in boring training, but this relationship was resolutely opposed by Huang Miaozhu's family, in order to urge her sister to focus on her career, Huang Miaozhu's sister also inseparably "monitored" her to train well.
Li Zongwei and Huang Miaozhu
I have to say that the best partner is to be able to walk hand in hand, the two people are not emotional, but under mutual support, the results have improved by leaps and bounds, Li Zongwei not only gradually replaced the former national player Huang Zhenhan, Huang Miaozhu also won his own gold medal championship.
With the continuous efforts of the two people, Huang Miaozhu's family gradually relaxed, but it was difficult to survive until the family's approval, but the relationship between the two people was again fluctuating due to trust issues.
Li Zongwei and Huang Miaozhu
The couple of the badminton "Gemini" met at the 2008 Olympics, but the two couples failed to get together at the peak, and after that, it was constantly reported that Li Zongwei and Huang Miaozhu had a 9-year relationship change and parted ways.
But the media still found that Li Zongwei and Huang Miaozhu often went in pairs, and their relationship seemed to be very harmonious, and they asked Li Zongwei whether he was a "fake breakup"? Li Zongwei waved his hand: "Even if you break up, you are still friends." ”
Li Zongwei
Immediately afterwards, Li Zongwei was exposed to the love of South Korean women's singles player Huang Huiyuan, and not long after, there was an affair with Wang Lin, the Chinese women's singles dan, but these lace gossip were ultimately gone.
Until Li Zongwei won the championship in the All England Championship, people knew that the two had long rekindled their old relationship, and in 2011, Li Zongwei and Huang Miaozhu tied the knot, and after marriage, the two welcomed two cute and clever sons.
Tiethe knot
I thought that happiness would always follow, but there were unforeseen circumstances, Li Zongwei unfortunately suffered from cancer, not only his favorite career was forced to stop, but also suffered the side effects of chemotherapy day and night, and her husband was tortured and Huang Miaozhu was very distressed.
But in order to let Li Zongwei recuperate with peace of mind, the thin Huang Miaozhu undertook everything, taking care of the children while carefully accompanying her husband, and insisted on supporting the fluttering family of four, and worked hard until Li Zongwei recovered from his illness.
Bless Dato' Dato
In 2022, Li Zongwei, who is not confused, confided on his social account that he welcomed his third youngest son, and the mother and son were safe.
Not long ago, Li Zongwei was invited to participate in the offline ceremony of the BWF Hall of Fame and reunited with Lin Dan, both of whom said that although they have left the arena, they will still contribute their strength to the promotion of badminton.
It can be seen from Li Zongwei's state that he has long let go of his obsession with winning the championship, and the whole person's state is getting better and better, and enjoying life with his wife and children has become his new goal, and the love that has been working together for 23 years is still sweet to words.
Family of 5
The blade of the sword is sharpened, and the fragrance of plum blossoms comes from the bitter cold.
Perhaps the golden period belonging to the "twin stars" of the badminton altar has become history, Li Zongwei and Lin Dan are undoubtedly the most dazzling existences in the sports world, they have long become a symbol of sportsmanship, and I believe that Li Zongwei, who has survived the torment of illness, will get better and better.
I hope that while working hard to live, you can also take care of your body, everything is not finished, and the future is still shining...