Copenhagen: Mathias Boe, the former World No. 1 men’s doubles player from Denmark, has announced his retirement after more than 20 years of competing at international badminton tournaments.
Boe started his international debut in 1998, and he was paired with several players early in his career including Michael Jensen, Thomas Hovgaard and Michael Lamp. Boe achieved the peak of his career when he was partnering Carsten Mogensen, as they have won many prestigious tournaments including the silver and bronze medals at the 2014 and 2013 World Championships. Boe and Mogensen also won the 2011 and 2015 All England, and became three-times champions at the 2000, 2011, 2012 BWF Superseries Finals. They also reached the final of the London 2012 Olympic Games, but had to settled for silver after losing to Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng of China.
“After announcing in February that I’ll play my last tournament at either at Thomas Cup or the Olympics, I was planning to give 100 percent in training over the next few months. Unfortunately, those tournaments have since been postponed,” said Boe.
“Recently, I noticed that I am mentally too exhausted and it’s hard for me to focus. Throughout my career, I have always pushed myself to become the best badminton player I could, and when I couldn’t do that, I told myself it’s time to stop,” added Boe.
The Thomas and Uber Cups Finals were originally scheduled to be held in Aarhus, Denmark on May 16-24, but had to be postponed to Aug 15-23 due to Covid-19. Of course, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were postponed to 2021 also due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
“I told my coach Jakob Hoi and my partner Mads Conrad about my decision immediately after the 2020 All England, they were surprised with my decision, but they were understanding,” explain Boe.
“In reality, once you reached my age, it is no longer the same as younger players. I am no longer as quick and agile as a panther, especially since I have stopped training for a month, I would never get started again.”
“I definitely feel proud of my achievements, but I also relieved that it’s over.”
Boe was also a member of the Denmark team when Denmark defeated Indonesia 3-2 in 2016 Thomas Cup final in Kunshan, China.
