Kuala Lumpur: Chinese New Year is right around the corner and Malaysian badminton legend Lee Chong Wei is sending greetings and best wishes to badminton fans around the world in celebration of Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival.
The 2019 Chinese New Year is the Year of Pig and will fall on Feb 5th.
Speaking to Malaysian media Sinchew, Lee who won three Olympic silver medals, said that the difficult experience of enduring and coping with the cancer treatments is over, he is now focusing on getting his body back in shape by resuming his training routine.
Despite the setbacks, Lee has not given up his dream of playing in the Tokyo Olympics. His New Year’s resolution was to stay healthy, and appreciate the time spent with his family and kids.
“I went to Taiwan for a follow-up check-up at the end of December last year. The results were good. The next follow up appointment will be in March. I will go to Bukit Mertajam during the Chinese New Year to be with my family. But will come back to Kuala Lumpur on the 3rd day of the new year,” said Lee.
“Since I have been rested for few months before resuming my on court training on and my fitness training in January this year, therefore, I must stay on course with my training plan to maintain my physical strength. Otherwise, if I take a long break in Chinese New Year, I will have to restart my workout routine after the Chinese New Year break, it’s going to be hard to have to start over,” added Lee.
After getting back in in full training, Lee felt that he has been able to handle the challenges, but would have to put his training to the test in real tournaments in order to determine his current fitness and skill levels.
“I have not increase my training intensity to 100%, right now, I only been training 3 days a week, but I will slowly increase my training to 4 or 5 days a week. I have to wait for green-light from the doctors before I can resume my high intensity training.”
“I have been with the national badminton team for 19-years, it’s always about training and competitions and had spent very little time with my family. Now that I have more time at home, I get a chance to watch my kids growing up and I also take them out to play and send them to school, it feels great!”
Lee also stressed that that even if the doctor would approve him to resume 100% training, he still needs to evaluate his physical condition. If he could deal with the toughness, he would continue to train, but if he realized it’s too hard for him, he might consider retiring.
“The recovery from cancer is completely different than recovery from other injuries. I won’t try to force myself as I used to. However, I am good with the duration, intensity and frequency of existing training, therefore, I will continue with my training.”
