Japan, April 2000.
When a women's doubles match ended, the audience was stunned, and the media began to report on it, because this seemingly ordinary badminton game marked the end of a myth of being unbeaten for more than four years.
The two sides of this match, on the one hand are Yang Wei/Huang Nanyan, and on the other side are the two most brilliant names in the history of the women's doubles, Ge Fei and Gu Jun.
First, the combination of heaven
In January 1975, Gu Jun was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, and nine months later, Ge Fei also landed in Nantong, not far away. The lives of the two badminton geniuses began from this moment and moved in the same direction.
In 1984, at the age of 9, Gu Jun entered the badminton team of Wuxi Amateur Sports School. In 1985, he was recruited as a member of the badminton team of Jiangsu Provincial Sports School. At the age of 6, Ge Fei practiced playing badminton under the enlightenment of his father and began training at the Nantong Amateur Sports School in 1983. In September 1984, he also entered the badminton team of Jiangsu Provincial Sports School. At the provincial sports school, the most successful women's doubles pair in the history of badminton fought together for the first time, and the young two did not know how incredible they would be able to achieve in the badminton world in the future.
Both are talented players in the absolute sense. Ge Fei played in both women's singles and women's doubles in jiangsu at the Seventh Games, and eventually won the team championship for Jiangsu team; in 1991, at the age of 16, Gu Jun was selected to join the national youth team and partnered with Han Jingna to win the women's doubles championship of the World Youth Championships. At the end of 1993, the two were selected for the national team as doubles partners.
At the ThaiLand Open in November 1993, the 18-year-old duo participated in an international tournament for the first time, and as a result, they won the championship all the way through the barriers, and from then on they began their days of killing the god and buddha in the women's doubles field. Throughout 1994, the two won eight titles, including at the Asian Championships. At that year's Uber Cup, the young Ge Fei / Gu Jun began their team match invincible journey, in the final, in the overall score of 1-2 behind the disadvantage, easily defeated the Indonesian combination Ze Lin / Zheng Limeng. However, in the end, because of the defeat of the prodigy Zhang Haili in three singles, Guo Yu regretted losing the Uber Cup championship that year.
However, the power of the Ge Fei/Gu Jun combination has been revealed, and the calm Ge Fei is good at sealing the net in front of the court and using her calm distribution to organize a variety of ball paths. The fiery Gu Jun attacked fiercely in the backcourt, often crushing the opponent with powerful slashing, at the critical moment, Ge Fei's calmness can stabilize Gu Jun's emotions in time, and Gu Jun's bravery can ignite Ge Fei's passion, the two diametrically opposed personalities just make up for each other's deficiencies, the very different technical tactics also form their rigid and soft style of play, coupled with the unparalleled tacit understanding of pairing training from childhood, Ge Fei and Gu Jun are a match made in heaven.
2. The first gold of the Olympic Games
In the 1995 Sudirman Cup, Ge Fei Gujun helped Guoyu win the Su Cup for the first time with a record of total victory. But at that time, in the world women's doubles, South Korea had a strong dominance, the 1992 Olympic champion Hwang Hye-young / Jung So-young, and the 1995 World Championship and the two most heavyweight championships in the whole country, Ji Yongya / Jang Hye-yu, were world-class combinations.
Until the 1996 Olympic Games, Ge Fei/Gu Jun and Ji Yongya/Zhang Huiyu played ten times, playing three sets each time, just like the later "Fengyun" and "Jackie Chan", of which Ge Fei/Gu Jun won 6 duels. The last defeat was in the final of the Japan Open in early 1996, when the South Korean duo pushed Ge Fei/Gu Jun to win the championship.
1996 was arguably the lowest year for the entire nation. Two consecutive World Championships were won twice, creating the worst ever record; the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup lost consecutive championships in 1994 and 1996, and the glory of the national feathers in the 80s disappeared without a trace. And Ge Fei / Gu Jun has become the biggest hope of Guo Yu to rush gold in various competitions. Ge Fei/Gu Jun did not disappoint, they opened the most dominant era in badminton history with a national Championship in 1996.
At the Atlanta Olympics in August 1996, because of the fiasco of the national team in 1992, the head coach of the national feather, Li Yongbo, vowed to make a breakthrough in this Olympic Games, and the doubles of Ge Fei/Gu Jun were the most stable gold rushing point. The biggest opponent is still Ji Yongya/Zhang Huiyu, who defeated them half a year ago.
In order to deal with the Korean combination, doubles coach Tian Bingyi specially asked the players to imitate the Korean opponent's ball path to play with them, and sometimes played with head coach Lee Yongbo personally. With the blessing of sufficient preparation and absolute strength, Ge Fei /Gu Jun played an exaggerated championship winning score in the Olympic Games. In all five games, not only did they not concede a single set, but in total they only scored 49 points, and no pair of opponents could score more than 6 points in any game. Including the final against Ji Yongya / Zhang Huiyu, it is still two 15-5, without suspense, for the national feather to win the first gold medal in olympic history. At that time, Ge Fei and Gu Jun were only 21 years old.
From this day on, the most oppressive combination in the history of badminton officially evolved into a complete body.
Third, the world is invincible
For others, "invincible" is a positive adjective, while for Ge Fei/Gu Jun, "invincible" is just a statement.
Since the Olympic Games, Ge Fei/Gu Jun has completely entered another level, just like the third realm of solitude and defeat, not stuck in things and no enemy in the world. They became a nightmare for all their contemporaries, and as long as they competed in the game, everyone else had to compete for second place.
Roddick said that tennis is a sport that desperately reaches the final and then loses to Federer, but Federer still has a French Open that was once difficult to cross, and Ge Fei/Gu Jun is invincible in all matches, and there is no opponent in the real sense. From 1996 to 2000, it was four years and three months, an undefeated game. (The only group game in the 1997 year-end finals, having won the right to qualify and then lost to their teammates, almost ninety-nine percent of them can definitely be released water) Even for nearly three years, they have not lost a single game.
From 1996 to 2000, they defended the World Championships, won four All England Championships, won the Asian Games 2-0, won the last two World Cup women's doubles titles, the Uber Cup, the Sudirman Cup, as long as they participated in the competition, there will be no accidents.
4. Left to right
Such an invincible combination, it is strange that they have almost zero communication off the pitch. On the court, they are full of tacit understanding and unity, often as long as a look and a gesture to know what the other party is thinking and what the state is. But as soon as the golden duo left the stadium, they had no contact with each other. Ge Fei said that the two of them are completely two types of people in personality, so they also have their own circles. Gu Jun also believes that this way will help the two to adjust their state, starting from the age of eight or nine, the game has been together for more than ten years, if you still stay together off the field, it is not conducive to the cultivation of the state.
Back to the game mentioned at the beginning, it was after this game, they who never came and went off the field, for the first time in more than a decade, they made an appointment to discuss countermeasures, because the Sydney Olympics were imminent. We have no way of knowing what the two said and ate that day, but we only know that five months later, at the Olympic Games, Ge Fei/Gu Jun is still so invincible.
With an aggregate score of 120-45 in the first four rounds and a maximum of seven points in the semi-finals, they reached the final with an invincible posture and were bound to become the first pair in the history of Olympic badminton to defend their titles. And their opponent is The little sister Yang Wei/Huang Nanyan who broke her undefeated golden body.
However, the final did not have too many ups and downs, although the physical fitness is not as good as the newcomer, but Ge Fei / Gu Jun cooperation is more tacit, holding the ball is more sophisticated, and four years ago, the same as the final four years ago, it is two 15-5, Ge Fei / Gu Jun easily won the Olympic gold medal.
After the game, almost for the first time, the two embraced and celebrated. Ge Fei Gujun later said that although they are not together in life, in the emotion of badminton, they are together for the belief that badminton must win. The desire for this gold medal was released at this moment.
At the 2000 Olympic Games, the women's doubles team finished in the top three
After the Olympic Games, Ge Fei finally chose to retire for multiple reasons, and later married his national team teammate Sun Jun.
Gu Jun wanted to play for a few more years, but he didn't have the heart to run into a new partner, and finally chose to hang up the auction. In fact, until the Olympics defended their titles, they are still only 25 years old, and with their state and strength, it is not impossible for the Olympic Games to be three times in a row.
In 2001, the two, who had been retired for more than a year, made a comeback at the National Games, and eventually reached the final, ending their careers with a runner-up in the National Games. However, at that National Games, Ge Fei also partnered with her husband Sun Jun to win the mixed doubles championship, which made the feather altar god eagle hero a good story.
After retiring, the two went one to the left and one to the right, and embarked on a completely different life. The two of them are like two very different lines, twisting and circling at a certain point after they want to intersect, weaving the most gorgeous movement, and then spreading out again, each running for their next journey.