Beijing: The mixed doubles champion at Sydney and Athens Olympic, Zhang Jun, was appointed new president of Chinese Badminton Association last Monday, less than 18 months before the start of Tokyo Olympics.
After he retired from the Chinese badminton national team, Zhang was tasked to coach and nurture a new generation of Olympic champions including Cai Yun, Fu Haifeng, and Zhang Nan. In early 2017, he was promoted to the doubles head coach. During a major organizational reshuffle in early 2018, he was selected as vice president of the Chinese Badminton Association.
The newly appointed president of Chinese Badminton Association understood he certainly has some immediate challenges ahead at the swearing-in ceremony.
“Our top priority is striving to fill all slots available for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with the ultimate goal of winning five Olympic golds in Tokyo,” said Zhang.
“As the host of this year’s Sudirman Cup, we should go all out to retain China’s dominance at the mixed team competition on our home turf,” added Zhang.
Zhang Jun said he would like to speed up the promotion of badminton at grassroots levels especially in universities and campuses, with the hope to make badminton the most popular sport in China. He would like to also create a strong talent supply chain between primary school, secondary school and universities.
Meanwhile, several former badminton players including Xia Xuanze, Liu Jin, Tang Jiuhong, Wang Wei, Chen Xingdong, Zhao Jianhua and Sun Jun were selected as vice-presidents.
