Former world number two Pi Hongyan last appeared at the 2012 London Olympics. As an endurance player, Pi has won several accolades for france – including bronze at the 2009 World Championships and silver at the European Championships, as well as Grand Prix and international champions.
After retiring, Pi Hongyan did not stay away from badminton, but continued her badminton career, she continued to coach and play at a club in Bordeaux, and held training camps for women's singles players of the French Badminton Association.
Pi Hongyan said she was relieved when she retired because she had been battling injuries for the past two years. However, she found that she could never truly distance herself from the sport.
"After the London Olympics, I chose to retire and go back to school. He began studying sports management in Marseille in September. I was also pregnant at the time, so I had to finish my studies during my pregnancy.
After finishing my studies, I worked as a coach at a local club and did some training camps in the women's singles league. In 2015, I had another child, a girl, so I had to stop again to take care of the baby. I never completely stopped my badminton career. In fact, I played for the club a few months after giving birth. ”
"Last year, I started a project with the French Badminton Association. We try to help young women's singles players, so we run camps five times a year. We go camping when they're on vacation. We pick girls from all over France and I will do my best to serve the children.
I am glad that I am involved in badminton. I also enjoy sharing my experience with others. I still enjoy playing in the club. I played in Bordeaux from 2006 to last year. But now I have to stop playing at the club because my knees are not so good. ”
"The BWF's invitation to me and Pedro Young to be athletes at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires was a very interesting experience. I think it's a really good experience for young athletes to prepare for the Olympics and they can progress in different ways.
During the 2017 World Championships in Glasgow, I did a coaching project with Xu Huaiwen to analyze women's singles. It's also fun to exchange ideas with other coaches from around the world and listen to the opinions of doubles coaches. ”
"Actually, the first year I was relaxed because I went through a lot of pain in the first two years. I had surgery on my knee and I couldn't enjoy playing anymore. I'd love to stop and start doing something else. I also plan to learn and start new challenges. I had to learn French and put in a lot of effort. I also have my personal life, like pregnancy and so on. Two or three years later, I started to miss badminton and I decided to go back to the club to play. ”
"It's really fun to watch women's singles now. You're not sure who's going to win. Many of the players are of similar level, and there are many countries that are excellent. There are a lot of variations in tactics and it's interesting to analyze. I think there are different styles, there are running, defensive, offensive. I look at their tactics and see how they use different tactics to gain an advantage. Some players have a lot of different techniques and they use some men's singles techniques. They can jump kills, they can also fish to save the ball, and some of these things are new.
I think the level is quite high because the players are in good physical condition and they can run for a long time. You can see the final in Glasgow, it was a long game. I think Okuhara hopes to be very similar to my style, but it is clear that she is better than me. Zhang Beiwen and I are also very close in style, and they both play very well! ”