Suzhou: On May 19th, at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center – the venue for the 2023 Sudirman Cup, China’s four former Olympics or World Champions, including Chen Long, Zhang Nan, Liu Cheng, and Li Junhui participated in a retirement ceremony specially held by the Chinese Badminton Association.
Before this retirement ceremony, the China team had just defeated the Indonesian team 3-0 in the Sudirmanc Cup quarter-finals. However, the audience remained in the stadium to witness the retirement ceremony of their former badminton idols.
The complete retirement ceremony (in Chinese/Mandarin):
The big screen behind the podium first played the exciting moments from the careers of these four top badminton players. When Chen Long’s name and photo appeared on the big screen, the stadium exploded with raging applause and cheers.
The family members of the four players were also invited to participate in the ceremony. Accompanying Chen Long was his wife, who was also former World No. 1 women’s singles player Wang Shixian.
The 34-year-old Chen Long has won men’s singles bronze, gold, and silver medals in three Olympic Games – the 2012 London, 2016 Rio, and 2020 Tokyo Games. In addition, he also won the World Championships twice in 2014 and 2015, five Sudirman Cup, and three Thomas Cup titles.
Chen Long has not been competing in any international tournaments after losing to Danish star Viktor Axelsen in the men’s singles final at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“Because Little Coffee (the nickname of Chen Long’s son) is already two years old, I did not spend enough time with him in the last two years due to both the pandemic and also preparation for the Tokyo Olympics. After discussing it with my family, I decided to quit the national team. Before that, Wang Shixian was always the only person who did everything. It’s not easy for her to take care of the whole family alone,” said Chen Long.
At the retirement ceremony, Zhang Jun, chairman of the Chinese Badminton Association, also expressed his gratitude to the four champions for their contribution to the Chinese badminton team over the years. Zhang June also expressed his best wishes to the four players and hoped that they would never leave badminton after their retirement. Zhang also presented commemorative gifts to the four badminton players.
