The Paris Olympics are approaching, and they are currently "unable to afford to be injured".
On the 4th, the semi-finals of the 2024 Uber Cup will be held in Chengdu. The South Korean team and the Japanese team, which lacked the two leading figures An Seying and Akane Yamaguchi, fell in front of the final at the same time, and the Chinese Taipei team, which had not had Tai Tzu Ying before, stopped in the quarterfinals. Many people are curious, did the women's singles masters fall under some "spell"?
It is not the "curse" that affects them, but the "devil" of injury. The above-mentioned masters came to Chengdu with injuries of varying degrees, but the Paris Olympics are approaching, and they are currently "unable to afford injuries".
World No. 1 An Seying suffered a right knee injury at the 2023 Asian Games and has not recovered since. She returned to the field and still had super-class quality, but she lost the stability of winning 10 titles in the 2023 season. In the Uber Cup, Ahn Se-ying played a muscle patch in her right knee every time she played, and after winning the first game for South Korea in the quarter-finals, she couldn't even walk through the mixed mining area and missed the semi-finals.
Akane Yamaguchi, ranked fourth in the world, was also injured at last year's Asian Games and missed many important tournaments such as the BWF year-end finals. Yamaguchi said she had recovered from her injury when she first arrived in Chengdu, but she only played in two group games and did not feature in the next two important knockout games. Whether it is a recurrence of an old injury or a retention of strength for the Paris Olympics, the Japanese team is silent.
Tai Tzu Ying, currently ranked fifth in the world, has been plagued by a knee injury over the past year and has repeatedly revealed that injuries have affected the systematization of her training. She felt unwell after only one game in the group stage of the Uber Cup, "I am not 50% back at the moment, and I hope I can prevent the injury from getting worse."
The above three and Chen Yufei of the Chinese team are the four most eye-catching women's singles players in this Olympic cycle. Chen Yufei's current injury is relatively mild. At the beginning of the year, she revealed on social media that she had an ankle injury, and after timely treatment, she was no longer in serious trouble. In this Uber Cup, she took two breaks in the group stage, and then won all three appearances and led the Chinese team to the final.
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Dai Ziying 2-0 Chen Yufei won the championship!
Updated: 2024-01-21
In the final of the 2024 India Open Badminton Championships, Dai Tzu Ying won the championship 2-0 Chen Yufei
Physical condition is undoubtedly one of the important factors that will determine the battle for the Olympic gold medal in women's singles. At the recently concluded Asian Championships, Chen Yufei said frankly when answering how to view the competition situation of the four: "At present, none of the four of us are in the best physical condition, and the recovery and adjustment before the Olympics is very crucial. ”
Injuries not only affect the physical condition, but also test the mental quality and resilience of the players. Learning to deal with injuries is a must for professional athletes, and in this class, the Spanish women's singles star Marin has some lessons.
The 30-year-old won gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and has since undergone two knee surgeries. She has been up and down this year, winning the All England Open and European Championships in succession, rising to third in the world rankings and becoming a strong contender for the women's singles gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
The Olympics are imminent, and it is expected that the women's singles "heavenly group" can get out of the injury troubles and gather in Paris to stage a peak showdown.