Guangzhou: Although China’s two-time Olympic badminton champion Lin Dan had retired from badminton, but he didn’t pack his badminton rackets entirely. He had recently organized the “Lin Dan Badminton Elite Championships” in Guangzhou, aiming to promote the sport of badminton among amateur players in China.
Since he officially announced his retirement from badminton on July 4, 2020, the greatest badminton player of all-time said that he spent a lot of quality time with his family in the last four months.
“The past few months have been pretty easy for me compared to when I was in the national team. If I don’t have any other work or meeting I have to attend, I usually stay at home with my son. Dropping him off and picking him up from school, and playing with him,” said Lin Dan.
Besides, Lin Dan has also recently started playing golf.
“I started to learn to play golf. I hope to do better in golfing so that I could participate in some amateur golf competitions in the future,” added Lin Dan.
Lin said that although he did not actively play badminton after his retirement, he hoped he could promote the sport of badminton on another level.
“Nowadays, many children have heavy schoolwork, which also leads to the problem of obesity. I want to work with schools and let more children pick up badminton rackets.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many badminton events have been postponed in 2020. The Guangzhou Sports Bureau has praised Lin Dan and his team for running a successful “Lin Dan Badminton Elite Championships” during a pandemic.
The “Lin Dan Badminton Elite Championships” was held in Guangzhou from Nov 14th to Nov 15th. There was a total of 48 teams and about 300 players participating in the tournament. After two days of fierce competition, the player from the Le Yu Jian team won the men’s singles title while the Juying team won the mixed team title.
