"I want to announce, retire!"
On June 13, 2019, Li Zongwei ended his 19-year sports career, and the "Lin Li War", which has touched countless badminton fans, became history with Li Zongwei's retirement.
Li Zongwei's retirement is not without warning, as early as September 2018, the Malaysian Badminton Association has sent a message confirming that Li Zongwei has early nasopharyngeal cancer.
He is lin dan's most beloved opponent in his life, and he is also a foreign badminton player loved by Chinese, although he has never won an Olympic champion's medal, he is still the "uncrowned king" in the hearts of countless people.
Li Zongwei is the fourth oldest in the family, from a young age, thin, much shorter than his peers, the family is worried that he will not grow up in the future, so they combined his preference for playing basketball and sent him to a local professional basketball training school.
After a period of time, his mother found that Li Zongwei's body not only did not become stronger, but the whole person was black and thin, so she let him give up playing basketball and learn badminton.
When Li Zongwei was 11 years old, his father took him to the badminton hall for training, and was favored by professional badminton coaches, after which Li Zongwei's badminton career officially began.
At that time, Li Zongwei was still young, he decided to participate in training while going to school, unexpectedly, Li Zongwei, who was chased by God to feed and eat, although the training time was limited, but the progress was rapid, in just 6 years he successfully passed the examination and entered the Malaysian badminton national team.
But at this time, Li Zongwei would not have thought that the "fierce enemy" in his career would soon appear.
In 2000, Li Zongwei and Lin Dan met at the Asian Youth Championship in Tokyo. At that time, Lin Dan won the first place and Li Zongwei won the third place. But the two really started to compete in the 2004 Thomas Cup qualifier, when Lin Dan finished 1st and Li Zongwei was 3rd.
In the next four years, Li Zongwei was busy playing in various arenas.
In 2006, Li Zongwei ranked 1st in world badminton;
In 2007, Li Zongwei won the Indonesian Open Badminton Championships;
In early 2008, Li Zongwei won the men's single championship in the BWF Super Series Finals.
At this time, it was only half a year before the Beijing Olympics. After the defeat of the first Olympic Games, Li Zongwei put his hopes on the Beijing Olympic Games, hoping to shame the country, win glory for the country, and realize his dream of winning the Olympic gold medal.
However, the result still disappointed Li Zongwei, whose Olympic gold medal was taken away by Lin Dan, and he won the silver medal.
In the eyes of most fans, Li Zongwei is the "second oldest man" who has lost to Lin Dan countless times, but in a game in 2016, Li Zongwei won Lin Dan.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Li Zongwei played against Lin Dan in the men's singles semifinals of badminton and finally won the game with a score of 2:1, but in the final, Li Zongwei lost to China's Chen Long and missed the Olympic gold medal again.
In the past 19 years of his career, Li Zongwei has played one game after another with everyone's expectations, winning 69 open men's singles championships, 46 super championships, and the fastest kill in men's singles.
Even if Li Zongwei has never won an Olympic gold medal, in the eyes of countless fans and even in the eyes of opponents, Li Zongwei is still a strong person who deserves everyone's respect.
Li Zongwei and Lin Dan are rivals but more like friends, the two have been competing on the field for 12 years, "Lin Li War" has satisfied the appetite of fans, just when everyone is looking forward to Li Zongwei to show his style again in the Tokyo Olympic Games, waiting for bad news to come.
Li Zongwei was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer in September 2018 and had to stop all competitions in order to cooperate with doctors.
I thought that Li Zongwei would still return to the field after his physical recovery, but he did not expect that the Indonesian semi-final against Taotian had become the last game in Li Zongwei's career.
"I had a total of 33 electrotherapies during the treatment, and then the inside of my throat was all broken, I needed to spray anesthesia to eat, and I would secretly cry in the shower."
When sick, people's sense of helplessness and vulnerability will be infinitely magnified, and Li Zongwei is no exception. According to Li Zongwei's self-report after his recovery, when he was diagnosed with treatment, it was the most difficult period of his past life.
Because it is found early, the probability of nasopharyngeal cancer being cured is very high, but the treatment process is also extremely painful, and even tough guys like Li Zongwei are tortured to the point of near depression.
Li Zongwei received a total of 33 electrotherapy sessions, 6 times a week for 25 minutes, before full recovery. The process of cancer treatment can not only bring hope to patients, but also bring endless pain to patients.
In the process of receiving electrotherapy, Li Zongwei's neck began to slowly harden, the wound became infected, and it was accompanied by a series of symptoms such as throat shrinkage and skin breakage, which were common conditions during electrotherapy.
In this case, for Li Zongwei, the most painful and most important thing to overcome is the problem of eating, the throat shrinkage, broken skin makes Li Zongwei's every swallowing is tortured, even if drinking water, milk and other liquid food will make people hurt to tears.
Later, after helplessness, his wife Huang Miaozhu would spray anesthetics on Li Zongwei's throat, only at this time, he could eat something slightly easily to maintain the nutrition of the body, and throughout the treatment, Li Zongwei lost 14 pounds.
"Every day when you eat, it is very hard, you can't eat, your throat will be very sore and painful, every time you want to eat, you will spray anesthesia, and then swallow it quickly..."
Even so, when Li Zongwei looked at his parents, wives and children who worked tirelessly to take care of his parents, wives and children around him, he would always grit his teeth and smile and carry them over.
However, even if Li Zongwei behaves calmly and thinks that he is well concealed, those who are always around and care about themselves will still find out.
"My wife cries at night, I know, but she doesn't cry in front of me. Because I know that I am very hard. I don't want her to see her when I cry myself at night, because I don't want her to worry, and sometimes I cry in the bathroom when I take a shower. ”
Fortunately, God took care of Li Zongwei.
After Li Zongwei actively cooperated with the doctor to receive treatment for more than two months, his condition was cured.
After healing Li Zongwei after returning to China, it was like being reborn. The next thing he wants to do is to train, and even worry about playing against Lin Dan at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
But what Li Zongwei did not expect was that the long period of bed rest made his muscles atrophy, so that later after each training, the muscles in his whole body were always abnormally painful.
Until a later re-examination, the doctor told him not to do too much exercise, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.
At this time, the determination to leave a perfect retirement match for the Tokyo Olympics, which was full of confidence, was completely cold.
On the one hand, he insisted on badminton for 19 years, and on the other hand, he was inseparable from his parents, wife and children, and Li Zongwei fell into a deep dilemma.
After the final comprehensive consideration, Li Zongwei had no choice but to make the decision to retire.
Li Zongwei, who was forced to retire, was both unwilling and helpless, he did not realize his dream of winning the Olympic gold medal, did not leave the fans with a curtain that made them scream, did not play another game with Lin Dan, maybe the last game, he won?
Fortunately, Li Zongwei only gave up the field, not badminton.
In 2020, after retiring, Lee Zong-wai was appointed head of the Malaysian delegation to the Tokyo Olympics, only this time he could only watch other athletes wave their faces on the field.
Li Zongwei has participated in the Olympic Games four times, three times have rubbed shoulders with the gold medal, and now even if he does not have the opportunity to play again, it has become another dream for him to take the team to get the gold medal!
In the first half of his life, badminton was all Li Zongwei had, he trained unremittingly every day, participated in countless competitions, won countless honors, and regarded winning Olympic gold medals as a lifelong dream.
After suffering from cancer and recovering, he was forced to retire, and he had no choice but more regrets, but he knew that the world was uncertain, and he chose the latter in peace.
From being unwilling at the beginning to slowly accepting calmly, Li Zongwei gradually accepted his current life, accompanied his family every day, and picked up his children to and from school. For him now, a healthy and healthy life together is the most important thing.
In September this year, Li Zongwei took his wife Huang Miaozhu to the Maldives for a vacation, and the two of them snuggled up to each other, their smiles still the same, like countless young couples.
Li Zongwei's wife, Huang Miaozhu, was originally the former number one women's singles player in Malaysia, but since marrying Li Zongwei, she has completely returned to the family, and she is at ease to teach her husband and children at home, washing her hands and making soup, which allows Li Zongwei to concentrate on training without worries.
Of course, Li Zongwei is also very considerate of his wife's difficulties, after retiring from the military, he devoted himself to the family, taking care of the family and accompanying the children with his wife.
Li Zongwei is one of the few foreign athletes loved by Chinese, and every singles match between him and Lin Dan can always easily trigger the passion of fans, although most fans prefer their country to win, but Li Zongwei is frank and frank even if he loses, which is regrettable.
In Li Zongwei's past career, every time he has competed for the honor of the country, he has succeeded, lost, and been misunderstood, but he has exhausted thousands of sails, and now he is the best.
Everyone's youth is limited, athletes in their limited careers, for the country, for the people, for the honor, day after day of high-intensity training to destroy their bodies, absent from the company of their families, Li Zongwei, so are countless athletes in China.
Although they retired with regrets, everything in their past still gave us unlimited strength.