Beijing: While the China national badminton team is actively preparing for the upcoming Sudirman Cup which will be played in Suzhou, China, from May 14 to May 21, 2023, China’s chief men’s singles coach, Xia Xuanze revealed in an interview with Chinese media that the 2016 Rio Olympics men’s singles gold medalist Chen Long has retired from professional badminton.
Although Chen didn’t release any official announcement about his retirement, badminton fans should be expecting that Chen could have already hung up his racket as he has not appeared in any international tournaments since the men’s singles final at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
According to Xia Xuanze, Chen, alongside other former Olympic champions – Li Xuerui (2012 London Olympics women’s singles gold medalist), and Cai Yun (2012 London Olympics men’s doubles gold medalist), have formed an expert technical team to provide strategic training and guidance to China’s national badminton team.
Currently, Chen Long’s main responsibility is to guide and find ways to take the reigning All-England champion Li Shifeng’s talent to the next level.
In addition to winning the 2016 Rio Olympics gold, the 34-year-old Chen also won the 2014 and 2015 World Championships.
In October 2022, Chen Long’s world ranking was removed from the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings after he has not been competing internationally since the final of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
