With the change of people's living standards and habits, cancer has gradually become one of the major killers that threaten human health. According to the 2020 Global Cancer Report, there were 19.3 million new cancers and nearly 10 million deaths worldwide in 2020, and its prevalence and fatality rate are frightening, and the physical and mental torture to patients is also uncountable.
Malaysian national treasure badminton player Lin Dan publicly stated that he "most admired opponent" - Li Zongwei has a heart-wrenching anti-cancer experience - 33 times of electrotherapy made his throat completely broken, unable to swallow, and every time he ate, he had to spray anesthetics to suppress pain.
In the face of adversity, with strong willpower to fight the disease and win, his anti-cancer road has also inspired countless fans and netizens who are looking for a way forward in the mud.
Li Zongwei was born on October 21, 1982 in Penang, Malaysia, with his ancestral home in Nan'an County, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province.
At the age of 11, Li Zongwei picked up his father's badminton racket for the first time, was accepted as an apprentice by the wise-eyed club coach, and began to study badminton, at that time, he did not expect that this small racket would write a strong stroke in his life later.
Six years later, Lee Chung Wai officially became a member of the Malaysian national team, which started his journey on the badminton field.
From the national championships to the world championships, he has reached the peak many times in his career: he won the BWF Finals four times, ranked first in the world for 199 consecutive weeks and accumulated 348 weeks, but was ranked second three times in the Olympic Games, failed to win a gold medal for his country at the Olympic Games, and regretted it until he retired from the army.
Even so, he gained the respect of the people, opponents and audiences around the world, and was called "feather legend".
Malaysia has never been a sporting powerhouse, and no athlete has won a gold medal for the country in the more than 100 years of olympic history. There is a desperate hope that an athlete will win the first gold medal and break history.
It was at this time that 17-year-old Li Zongwei made his debut at the Malaysian National Championships and seven years later became Malaysia's third world-ranked men's singles player, and in the process, Li Zongwei gradually became a national athlete.
"If you want to wear a crown, you must bear its weight", when people's eyes are focused on Li Zongwei, he is not just fighting for himself.
In 2008, Li Zongwei reached the final of the Beijing Olympic Games, but was defeated by China's Lin Dan with a score of 0:2 and won the runner-up; in 2012, he entered the badminton final of the London Olympic Games for the second time, but again lost to Lin Dan in the battle for the champions.
In 2016, Li Zongwei finally defeated his old rival Lin Dan at the Rio Olympic Games, the two rivals who were also enemies and friends hugged tightly on the field, and the gold medal seemed to be in front of Li Zongwei, but this time he met another big devil of China, Chen Long, in the final, and finally lost the game and won the runner-up for the third time.
Four Olympic games, three times runners-up, repeated defeats, repeated defeats, and a lot of big and small competitions since fame, 69 championship titles for the country, long-term overload training and competition accompanied by physical pain.
Li Zongwei had the idea of retiring in 2013: "I'm really tired. Sometimes I really don't want to play badminton anymore and want to retire. But no way, the country needs me. With me in the Open, I can at least reach the final four. ”
He wanted to go, but he was suffering from no one to follow, so he could only continue to overdraft his body and carry the gold medal dream of the whole country with his thin body.
It was such a tragic hero who finally couldn't bear it at the age of 36 because he had nasopharyngeal cancer.
In 2018, Li Zongwei was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer, and he had to stop training and officially started cancer treatment accompanied by his wife.
Although the discovery is timely, the cancer is still in its early stages and can be cured by modern medical technology, the physical and mental torture caused by the treatment process is beyond the tolerance of ordinary people.
According to Li Zongwei's own recollection, he once received 33 times of electrotherapy in 30 days, 5 to 6 times a week.
During the treatment, severe side effects caused the entire interior of his throat to fester, and every time he spoke or swallowed, it was a form of torture.
However, not eating means that the body does not have enough energy to fight the cancer cells, in order to reduce pain, Li Zongwei must spray anesthetics every time he eats, and then quickly swallow the liquid food.
During the treatment, the physical pain made him lose weight, and his wife was distressed by the pain he suffered, but she did not want him to worry, so she never shed a tear in front of him, and every night she would secretly hide in a place he could not see and cry.
When the pain came up, Li Zongwei would also silently cry in the bed and in the bathroom. In this way, the two worked hand in hand through the difficult anti-cancer process, during which nearly ten million yuan was spent, fortunately, all the efforts in the end were not in vain, and Li Zongwei was recovered after treatment.
Even though his condition was under control, the physical toll of cancer was enormous, and just when everyone thought that Li Zongwei's career was over, he said six months later that he had begun recovery training and hoped to represent the country at the Tokyo Olympics in two years and return to his beloved badminton field.
At the beginning of the recovery of the serious illness, the training that had been taken for more than ten years suddenly became unbearable, and after each training, there was no place on Li Zongwei's body that was not painful, and even he could only walk with a gasp and a limp forward.
His wife is worried about his body, but as an athlete, she also understands how unwilling it is for athletes to "fall without a fight", and hopes that he can leave no regrets after trying.
However, at that time, Li Zongwei was no longer in the golden age of sports events, and half a year's bed rest treatment made his once-strong muscles atrophy and the torture of illness made his whole person lose weight rapidly.
After the "millennium old two" of the Olympic Games, fate seems to have played a joke with him again, and once he fell ill, Li Zongwei could never return to his peak period. Even so, what really forced him to give up his dream was the doctor's persuasion.
Doctors said that after experiencing the attack of the immune system by cancer, Li Zongwei's body could not withstand the amount of exercise in the event training in a short period of time.
In the face of the doctor's euphemistic persuasion, he repeatedly confirmed to the doctor, praying to get the answer he hoped for, but in the end he could not stay in the field he loved most.
On June 13, 2019, Li Zongwei officially announced his retirement at a press conference, ending a great 19-year sports career.
Although he tried to smile at the press conference and hoped to easily say goodbye to the fans, he finally couldn't bear it, crying sadly at the scene, and frankly said that his physical condition did not allow him to continue to engage in high-intensity badminton training.
On the same day, the old rival Lin Dan shared the song "Friends Don't Cry" on social media, with the caption "No one is with me on the field alone", and this pair of sympathetic opponents ended their more than ten years of competition.
In April 2020, Li Zongwei revealed on the Internet that he had completely recovered from cancer and was now in very good health.
Now, this "god"-like man in the eyes of the fans has finally unloaded the burden on his body and lived a leisurely life with his wife and children.
He finally has more time to spend with his family, picking up and dropping off his children from school every day, listening to them share interesting things on campus, and these trivial things that were ignored because of training in the past have made Li Zongwei's life more complete.
Just a few days ago, Li Zongwei spent his 39th birthday sharing photos of himself riding around the mountain with his wife on social media, accompanied by text
"Beautiful mornings, perfect weather, magnificent klcc landscape, handsome bikes, my pink caretaker (@wife) who made everything possible".
Li Zongwei in the photo is much thinner than in the past, but his face is rosy and his overall mental state is good. Chinese fans also sent birthday wishes in the comments and wished him good health.
Li Zongwei once said that when he was a child, he always felt that the days were very long, and he obviously practiced badminton for a long time, but he still felt that he could not finish a day, but when he grew up, a year was only fleeting.
From the ignorance of the first contact with badminton at the age of 11, to the spirit of becoming the Malaysian national champion at the age of 17, to the 24-year-old becoming the world number one in badminton, and the 28-year-old becoming the first in history to win three consecutive championships in the badminton federation finals.
Badminton has made Li Zongwei, so that a lonely and nameless poor boy can become a hero in everyone's eyes; Li Zongwei has also achieved badminton, his superb skills have made more people in the world know and pay attention to this sport, and Li Dan's several wonderful duels are known as the "Battle of Lin and Li", attracting the attention of countless fans, prompting more and more people to participate in this sport.
Li Zongwei named his documentary "The Loser is King", and there are undoubtedly many regrets in his career, which cast a sad color over his story.
He has never won an Olympic gold medal for his country, but he has never given up and is the only player to reach the men's singles final in badminton for three consecutive years.
He lost his last match, losing to Japan's Kento Momota in the semi-finals of the 2018 Indonesia Tournament, not being able to draw a perfect end to his badminton career, but not long before this match, he also won the last title at the Malaysian Open, creating an unprecedented miracle of 12 consecutive titles, defeating the world's number one Momota Kendou.
The outbreak of cancer did not happen overnight, Li Zongwei was bound to endure a period of pain, and even before the declaration of cancer, Li Zongwei was still active on the field and achieved good results.
Some people joked that "before Datuk retired due to illness, he could still defeat Momota Kendou, who is now alone, if he had not been sick, how many of the top 8 in the world are now his opponents?" "Unfortunately, there is no if, and even the most powerful people can't hide from life, old age, illness and death."
Li Zongwei is indeed the king, but not a loser, his contribution to world badminton is not simply measured by achievements, his fighting spirit is a legend that never ends in the badminton world.