The Badminton event at the 2012 Olympics must have created a history of sorts that may remain unsurpassed ever :
1) China sweeping all five gold medals
2) Lin Dan defending his Gold Medal
3) Cai Yun and Fu Hai Feng becoming the first Men's Doubles pair from China to win an Olympic Gold
4) Zhao Yun Lei becoming the first player to win twin golds in 1 Olympic year .
Not only would each record be unsurpassed in China after Li moves on to develop his badminton school business but it would probably be unsurpassed by other countries in the future.
Li Yong Bo thus leaves an impeccable record for China badminton, from rescuing a shattered team after the 1992 Thomas Cup to its current glory that even surpasses what Hou Jia Chang did with Yang Yang,Zhao Jian Hua and Li Yong Bo and Tian Bing Yi.
After all these achievements were not without its shortcomings,with scandals in the 90s and the attempt to humiliate badminton in the 2012 Olympics by setting a trap in the form of round robin matches.Li had to be ruthless to survive in ultra competitive China and also to weather the storm from jealous rivals in the international arena who saw their influence fading and having to live with Li's American style "kick ass" attitude to competitive sports.Not many people remember history in that many great achievements have not been achieved without some form of ruthlessness and tough and sometimes ungentlemanly tactics.After all the world would not be what it is today if not for Western Imperialism in the past with even worse exponents of
bad ass behaviour like Hitler,George Bush, Richard Nixon to name just a few.Or not to mention the badminton match fixings Indonesia was famous for in the 70s.
What now after the Olympics? Downhill all the way starting with China and then trickling down to the rest of the world :
1) More balance in Gold Medals amongst other nations
2) The death of Men's Singles after Lin Dan and Li Chong Wei leave international badminton.The only player likely to bring some sparks would be Wang Zheng Ming and Victor Axelsen. Expect to see some bland fare from Chen Long in the immediate future.
3) The demise of Men's Doubles pairs from China with Korea and possibly Thailand coming to the fore.
4) Li Xue Rui and Wang Yi Han ruling for a few years with challenges from Ratchanok,Tai Tzu Ying and Sindhu.
5) China continuing to churn out top pairs in Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles from its factory,with the rest of the world hardly taking any interest.
6) The rise of Japan,Thailand , India and Taiwan to challenge China.
I think Li Yong Bo has achieved all that needs to be achieved,in fact he has over-achieved. Whether he applies the brakes or whatever is out of the question as he alone cannot buck worldwide trends.With the slide in total dominance maybe it is timely for China to stop behaving like the classic Ugly American or Yankee or like a Third World country with a chip on its shoulder, at least in Badminton, by being more gracious and generous in sharing the spoils with other nations and instead re-channel its resources into building world beating athletes in the sports of affluent countries such as Track and Field,Swimming, Cycling,Sailing,Canoeing, etc.etc. Whatever team tactics planned may no longer work,it would be smarter to focus more on quality players rather than quantity and a lot in this regard can be learned from what is done currently in Table Tennis.
It is perhaps timely for the big bad lion to stop hoarding the kill but to allow the packs of scheming hyenas and coyotes to have a bite of the prime chunks after all this is happening everywhere in all walks of life,especially when the ruling association has been infiltrated by foxes trying to revive the good old days of imperialism ever ready to pander to the wishes of the hungry packs.
Foxes and packs alike have forgotten an important detail, it is one thing to have mass participation, ultimately it is the big bucks from the big successful players and nations that drives sports forward.All these politicking is all to familiar to us living in a region and nation run by jackals in the majority,lazy and cunning ever ready to live off the success of others and pinching a free ride,ostracising the outstanding and branding them as show-off and arrogant,too narrow minded to understand that undermining successful people is ultimately shooting one's own foot.
And in case you feel offended the coyotes,hyenas referred to are not those who love the game and want to excel in it, but the noisy ,narrow minded fanatics and losers who will stop at nothing to sabotage their victors.
1) China sweeping all five gold medals
2) Lin Dan defending his Gold Medal
3) Cai Yun and Fu Hai Feng becoming the first Men's Doubles pair from China to win an Olympic Gold
4) Zhao Yun Lei becoming the first player to win twin golds in 1 Olympic year .
Not only would each record be unsurpassed in China after Li moves on to develop his badminton school business but it would probably be unsurpassed by other countries in the future.
Li Yong Bo thus leaves an impeccable record for China badminton, from rescuing a shattered team after the 1992 Thomas Cup to its current glory that even surpasses what Hou Jia Chang did with Yang Yang,Zhao Jian Hua and Li Yong Bo and Tian Bing Yi.
After all these achievements were not without its shortcomings,with scandals in the 90s and the attempt to humiliate badminton in the 2012 Olympics by setting a trap in the form of round robin matches.Li had to be ruthless to survive in ultra competitive China and also to weather the storm from jealous rivals in the international arena who saw their influence fading and having to live with Li's American style "kick ass" attitude to competitive sports.Not many people remember history in that many great achievements have not been achieved without some form of ruthlessness and tough and sometimes ungentlemanly tactics.After all the world would not be what it is today if not for Western Imperialism in the past with even worse exponents of
bad ass behaviour like Hitler,George Bush, Richard Nixon to name just a few.Or not to mention the badminton match fixings Indonesia was famous for in the 70s.
What now after the Olympics? Downhill all the way starting with China and then trickling down to the rest of the world :
1) More balance in Gold Medals amongst other nations
2) The death of Men's Singles after Lin Dan and Li Chong Wei leave international badminton.The only player likely to bring some sparks would be Wang Zheng Ming and Victor Axelsen. Expect to see some bland fare from Chen Long in the immediate future.
3) The demise of Men's Doubles pairs from China with Korea and possibly Thailand coming to the fore.
4) Li Xue Rui and Wang Yi Han ruling for a few years with challenges from Ratchanok,Tai Tzu Ying and Sindhu.
5) China continuing to churn out top pairs in Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles from its factory,with the rest of the world hardly taking any interest.
6) The rise of Japan,Thailand , India and Taiwan to challenge China.
I think Li Yong Bo has achieved all that needs to be achieved,in fact he has over-achieved. Whether he applies the brakes or whatever is out of the question as he alone cannot buck worldwide trends.With the slide in total dominance maybe it is timely for China to stop behaving like the classic Ugly American or Yankee or like a Third World country with a chip on its shoulder, at least in Badminton, by being more gracious and generous in sharing the spoils with other nations and instead re-channel its resources into building world beating athletes in the sports of affluent countries such as Track and Field,Swimming, Cycling,Sailing,Canoeing, etc.etc. Whatever team tactics planned may no longer work,it would be smarter to focus more on quality players rather than quantity and a lot in this regard can be learned from what is done currently in Table Tennis.
It is perhaps timely for the big bad lion to stop hoarding the kill but to allow the packs of scheming hyenas and coyotes to have a bite of the prime chunks after all this is happening everywhere in all walks of life,especially when the ruling association has been infiltrated by foxes trying to revive the good old days of imperialism ever ready to pander to the wishes of the hungry packs.
Foxes and packs alike have forgotten an important detail, it is one thing to have mass participation, ultimately it is the big bucks from the big successful players and nations that drives sports forward.All these politicking is all to familiar to us living in a region and nation run by jackals in the majority,lazy and cunning ever ready to live off the success of others and pinching a free ride,ostracising the outstanding and branding them as show-off and arrogant,too narrow minded to understand that undermining successful people is ultimately shooting one's own foot.
And in case you feel offended the coyotes,hyenas referred to are not those who love the game and want to excel in it, but the noisy ,narrow minded fanatics and losers who will stop at nothing to sabotage their victors.
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