Badminton has a history of hundreds of years, but it has only entered the Olympic family for more than two decades. In 1992, the Barcelona Olympic Games, badminton officially became a member of the Olympic family, to the 2012 London Olympic Games, 6 Olympic Games, the birth of 5 men's singles champions, of which only two Chinese, in addition to Lin Dan in 2008 and 2012 two gold medals, the other Chinese player is Ji Xinpeng, 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, in the absence of attention staged a magical championship journey.
Ji Xingpeng, born on December 30, 1977 in Shashi, Hubei Province, began to contact badminton at the age of 7; in 1989, Ji Xinpeng became one of the three members of the Xiamen professional badminton team selected from Shashi to continue the badminton road. In February 1996, Ji Xinpeng's efforts were finally appreciated, and he was selected into the Chinese national second team, and after entering the national team, Ji Xinpeng did not rise to the top because of his introverted personality and immature psychological quality.
In the 8th National Games in 1997, Ji Xinpeng, who was already the first main force of the Xiamen men's team, did not represent the Fujian team for various factors, making him the only national team player who did not participate in the National Games. At the end of the 1990s, Chinese badminton was rebounding strongly, when the men's singles gathered Sun Jun, Xia Xuanze, Luo Yigang, Chen Hong and others, and for Ji Xinpeng, who had mediocre qualifications, there was indeed not much outstanding performance.
In 2000, Ji Xinpeng's performance began to pick up, and he finished second at the Swiss Open at the beginning of the year, third in the All England Tournament, and won the men's singles championship at the Japan Open. But before the Sydney Olympics registration deadline, he narrowly failed. At that time, there were 5 Chinese players eligible to participate in the men's singles, in addition to Sun Jun, Xia Xuanze and Ji Xinpeng, veterans Luo Yigang and Chen Hong also met the selection criteria, and the Chinese team almost sacrificed Ji Xinpeng when it could only send 3 players to participate. Li Yongbo, the head coach of the Chinese team, once revealed that when considering the Olympic list, Ji Xinpeng had the idea of excluding him because of his average performance in several competitions, but after several considerations, he decided to let him participate.
Fortunately, Ji Xinpeng's performance in Sydney did not disappoint the coach who supported him, he advanced all the way, defeating Wu Wei in Hong Kong, China; Kevin Han in the third round against the United States; 1/4 final encountered the talented Player Tawfik of Indonesia at the time, but Ji Xinpeng did not give the young Tao Tianwang too many opportunities, and won easily 15-12, 15-5 to advance to the final four. In the semi-finals, he met Denmark's Pete Gad. This game is also a twist and turn, the first set Ji Xinpeng won 15-9, but the second set was played 1-15, almost shaved head, the decider, Ji Xinpeng withstood the pressure, and finally won 15-9, thus eliminating Gade 2-1 and advancing to the final.
Originally thought that the final was a Chinese civil war, but Xia Xuanze in the second half of the region was powerless against Indonesian superstar Ye Chengwan, and he was out of the game. In the final showdown, Ji Xinpeng showed the style of a general, suppressed Ye Chengwan from the beginning, won easily in the first set 15-4, and the two of them had been biting the game in the second set, knowing that the last moment was the winner and loser, 15-13, Ji Xinpeng won the winning point, excitedly clenched his left fist and shouted in celebration. He created the history of badminton in China and became the first person to win gold at the men's singles Olympic Games.
In addition to stepping on the highest level of the Olympic podium and creating another peak for his badminton career, Ji Xinpeng completely shattered the dream of an Olympic gold medal for ye Chengwan, who was 28 years old that year. From the zero breakthrough achieved by the Chinese badminton team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games to the four gold medals won by Sydney in the badminton event (Gong Zhichao won the women's singles championship, Ge Fei/Gu Jun won the women's doubles, and Zhang Jun/Gao Lun won the mixed doubles), the performance of Chinese badminton players was impressive.
After the Sydney Olympics, Ji Xinpeng did not continue his legend, only won the Sudirman Cup team championship with the Chinese team in 2001, and then gradually faded out of the stadium due to physical reasons. In October 2002, at the age of 26, Ji Xinpeng officially retired from the national team, and two months later, Ji Xinpeng embarked on a coaching position as the coach of the national youth team, and soon after, he was transferred to the national first team as an assistant coach of the men's singles team, and in December 2004, he was appointed as the head coach of the men's singles team of the second national team.
As a coach, Ji Xinpeng values the athlete's character most. He said: "I often tell my players that to play the ball well, we must first learn to be human. To be a person, you must have cultivation behaviors, and these cultivations can ultimately be reflected in the stadium. Ji Xinpeng believes that the reason why he succeeded in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games was not simply by relying on opportunities and luck, but by countless efforts and countless accumulations, and finally reached a process from quantitative to qualitative. Therefore, after becoming a coach, he often shares his experience and experience in playing with the players, he said: "I teach my players to learn to be human first, so that even if they leave the badminton court in the future and do other work, they can be successful." ”
When Ji Xinpeng was a coach in the national team, the most proud disciple was Chen Long, who entered the second team of the national team at the age of 17 in June 2006, and his coach happened to be Ji Xinpeng. Under the careful cultivation of Ji Xinpeng, Chen Long's ability and achievements have steadily improved, from the runner-up of the national youth competition to the champion of the Asian Youth Championship, and then to the champion of the World Youth Championship, he only took more than half a year. As the coach of Xiamen, he has cultivated the star of hope in Xiamen, and Ji Xinpeng also lives up to the expectations of his hometown.
On the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Ji Xinpeng, as an Olympic champion, was born in Hubei due to his special status, and he grew up in Fujian, and he successively received invitations from his hometown and the "second hometown" to cultivate him, and then the State General Administration of Sport also issued an invitation to him from Beijing. The reason why he finally chose to serve as a torchbearer in Xiamen, Ji Xinpeng said, is because Xiamen wants him to come, and he is also cultivated by Xiamen.
Also on the eve of the Beijing Olympic Games, there was a little unpleasantness between Ji Xinpeng and Lin Dan, the men's singles player of the national team at the time. At that time, because of the task of the Beijing Olympic Games, in order to strengthen the men's singles coaching team and ensure that the men's singles achieved the goal of winning gold at the Beijing Olympic Games, in September 2007, head coach Li Yongbo transferred Ji Xinpeng to the men's singles coaching team and assisted Zhong Bo with the old coach Tang Xianhu, Ji Xinpeng was mainly responsible for physical training and psychological adjustment. On April 10, 2008, just four months before the Olympic Games, the national team that was preparing for the Thomas Cup in Jinjiang, Fujian Province, had a surprising incident, and lin dan, the world's first men's singles player, punched his coach, Sydney Olympic champion Ji Xinpeng, in front of reporters, coaches and teammates. The reason for the action was that Lin Dan was dissatisfied with the grouping of the team confrontation match, and Ji Xinpeng theorized, and finally started, but Ji Xinpeng never fought back after being attacked.
However, at that time, Lin Dan said at the first time that he did not beat Ji Xinpeng, but was emotionally agitated and argued a few words. At the same time, other coaches of the Chinese badminton team have also stated that Lin Dan did not play Ji Xinpeng. However, Ji Xinpeng "disappeared" at a critical moment, making it impossible for people to make a conclusive conclusion on this incident. On April 11, Ji Xinpeng said in his blog "My Answer" that Lin Dan had apologized to him, but did not mention "hitting people" without mentioning a word. Ji Xinpeng also said that in order for the national feathers to prepare for the Olympic Games with peace of mind, he hopes not to expand this matter. A few years later, Lin Dan recalled the incident in his autobiography "Until the End of the World", saying that this was a small flame that could be solved by the team, but it did not turn into a catastrophe, Ji Xinpeng and the team lost both, and after the misunderstanding, he was also reflecting: the times are different, and the way of communication between coaches and players has also changed dramatically.
After the Beijing Olympic Games, Ji Xinpeng left the coaching position of the national team and was appointed deputy director of the Xiamen Competitive Sports Management Center after returning to Xiamen. From his retirement in 2002 to today, in 7 years, Ji Xinpeng has completed two conversions from athlete to coach and then from coach to administrator. In April 2010, Ji Xinpeng graduated from Wuhan Institute of Engineering and obtained a master's degree in business management.
Regarding Ji Xinpeng's feelings and family life, he fell in love at first sight with his current wife He Xiaoyan in 1999 under the guidance of friends, and then after nearly 5 years of love run, he finally entered the marriage hall in 2005. Nowadays, Ji Xinpeng, who has been very blessed, will still have badminton elements in his life, and Xiamen team, as a strong team in the Badminton Super League, will serve as a commentator during the home game. In his spare time, Ji Xinpeng will also participate in various activities as a guest and participate in the promotion of national fitness.
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