Beijing: Two-time Olympic Champion Lin Dan had been laying low to avoid unnecessary misrepresentations from the media since Thursday after his cheating scandal had gone viral on social media.
According to an insider, Lin texted his heart-felt apology to the Chinese national team on Friday for his alleged misconduct and he felt extremely sorry for the inconvenience that incident may have caused to the Chinese badminton team.
Lin also revealed that he will be on leave until December 31, which means badminton fans around the world will get to see Lin Dan back on the court early next year.
From a photo shared among Lin Dan’s inner circle of close friends, Lin Dan has restarted his training at the training bureau of China’s General Administration of Sport on Saturday. Picture above shown Lin Dan working on his physical and leg training with assistant from a physiologist.
Before the scandal, Lin was involved in a lot of advertisement sponsorships, such as Oakley, Yonex, Montblanc, Pepsi, Gillette, Red Bull, Citroen, L’oreal, Tsingtao and KFC to name a few. After the scandal, it is very likely that those companies will choose to distance themselves from Lin.
A sports marketing agency in Shanghai that managed brands such as Manchester United, the Bundesliga and Kobe Bryant in China told reporters that they are really worried about Lin Dan’s sponsorship deals.
“His apology post on Weibo has reached over 1 billion reads, it’s more than the coverage on American election, but the sentiment was very negative,” said the agency.
“The brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, Montblanc, and Yonex who have endorsed him are probably not very happy to this news and there could be serious financial consequences for Lin Dan.”
As of Saturday, Lin’s sponsors were refusing to reply to any questions related to this cheating scandal.
