Dubai: After returning home from Tokyo with an Olympic gold medal, Denmark’s World No. 2 men’s singles player, Viktor Axelsen took his girlfriend and his cute baby girl to Dubai for a vacation. And now, he has officially announced that he is making Dubai his new home and new training base.
Axelsen who had been training at Denmark Badminton National Team Centre in Brøndby, Denmark since he was 16, has started training at Nad Al Sheba Sports Complex in Dubai.
On Monday, Axelsen posted message below explaining the reasons for him moving to Dubai:
“As you may have read, I’m trying something new again: Even though I’ve won Olympic gold, I’m still the same athlete and human being who is constantly trying to improve myself and achieve the maximum.
This means I have decided to move my daily training to Dubai, I believe it makes sense and where I already know the setup and can focus 100 percent. I’ve spoken to Jyllands-Posten (a Danish newspaper) about it, and I think you should read the article to understand why I made that decision and here are some of the reasons of me moving to Dubai:
– I will always chase the extra percent. I always dreamed of creating my own training facility and I live to challenge myself.
– The base in Dubai gives me significantly shorter travel time and better recovery time especially when we travel so much to Asia.
– My asthma and hay fever reduce my lung capacity by 15% to 20% during the summer in Denmark. I’ve been looking for a way to avoid it for many years so I can exercise optimally.
– The shorter travel time allows me to spend more time with Natalia and Vega.
– Currently, I have been training with two Danish players, and I will do that in the future and create optimal conditions with sparring partners from Denmark, Europe, and Asia.
I want you to know that my goal is still the same: I dream of winning even more big titles and creating moments that make the Danes proud.”
According to the Chairman of Badminton Denmark, Tore Vilhelmsen, Badminton Denmark will still register Viktor Axelsen for international tournaments as a Denmark player. However, he may not able to have a very close training relationship with those Danish national coaches as before.
“It used to be a very, very close collaboration. And since Viktor now wants to live in Dubai, train, and have his base there, our coaches will not be able to work with him full time. We may need to work out a different way of collaboration between Viktor and the coaches,” said Tore Vilhelmsen.
According to Google map, flying time from Copenhagen to Beijing, China (where there are a lot of badminton tournaments being held during the non-COVID period) takes about 9 hours, and the flying time from Dubai to Beijing, China takes about 14 hours.
Here are other flying times we found between Copenhagen of Denmark to Seoul – Korea, Tokyo – Japan, Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia, Jakarta – Indonesia, and Dubai to Seoul – Korea, Tokyo – Japan, Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia, Jakarta – Indonesia. These are destinations where some of the important badminton tournaments will be held. And of course, Axelsen was correct that flying time from Copenhagen is relatively longer to these destinations compare to flying time from Dubai.
Copenhagen to Seoul, Korea – 11 hours 15 minutes
Copenhagen to Tokyo, Japan – 11 hours
Copenhagen to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 15 hours 25 minutes
Copenhagen to Jakarta, Indonesia – 16 hours 30 minutes
Dubai to Seoul, Korea – 8 hours 20 minutes
Dubai to Tokyo, Japan – 10 hours
Dubai to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 7 hours 15 minutes
Dubai to Jakarta, Indonesia – 8 hours 25 minutes
