Of course, history will today recall that it was but a Malaysian fantasy – a dream lost not for want of trying by Chong Wei but for the dazzling form of Lin Dan. The Chinese ace was in a league on his own; he was simply mesmerizing and turned in one of the most scintillating one-sided performances as the world watched in awe as Lin Dan dismantled a hapless Chong Wei piece-by-piece to tatters. If performance in badminton could be measured to indicate height, distance or time as most other sports, then Lin Dan would surely have scored the proverbial ‘10’. He was simply the ‘Bolt/Phelps’ die-cast. 

On the night when Malaysians had prepared a party to welcome the nation’s first gold medal, they instead, though reluctantly rose as one to applaud the new Olympic champion…Lin Dan. A sports-cultured society, Malaysia is no stranger to identifying true-blue champions, having itself produced many during its heydays - Wong Peng Soon, Ong Poh Lim, Eddy Choong, Tan Aik Huang, Punch Gunalan, Ng Boon Bee, Tan Yee Khan, Yew Cheng Hoe. But on this particular night all else was history as they joined a billion voices to celebrate the birth of a new Olympic champion.

Lin Dan has finally come home and earned his Olympic Pin in his own homeland in front of his adoring fans and responded with his customary soldier’s salute. He is a member of the national army.

 Four years earlier in Athens, Lin Dan was one of the early favourites but was bundled out in the very first round by the Indonesian-bred Singaporean Ronald Susilo, the very same player who coincidently was brushed aside by Chong Wei in the first round in Beijing!

A year later Lin Dan was highly regarded for the World title in Anaheim and again, it was an Indonesian Taufik Hidayat who cashed in on the Chinese misery to claim the 2005 World title.

But in the three years leading up to the Beijing Games, the Chinese ace had responded by taking a piece of anything and everything that badminton had to offer and became the most decorated singles player.

Gold medals at the World Championships, the All-England, Asian Games, numerous Super Series and invitational tournaments were there for his picking and he took them all. He was not a ‘lone-wolf’ but rather an excellent team player as well…a couple of  Thomas and Sudirman Cups stand testimony to this.

Today Lin Dan stands among the elite group of players who have achieved so much in such a short time – he is only 25 years of age.

Three year ago he had declared, “I was very disappointed not to have won the Olympics of ’04 and the World Championship of ‘05 but I had believed my time will come.” How prophetic!

parceiros