Lin Dan

One of the greatest players of all time

Lin Dan is a Chinese badminton player considered to be one of the greatest singles players of all time. He had won all nine major titles in the badminton world—Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, Thomas Cup, Sudirman Cup, Super Series Masters Finals, All England Open, Asian Games, and Asian Championships—by the time he was 28. Currently he is the only player to have achieved this feat and is therefore considered by many to be the greatest badminton player ever to have graced the sport.

Nicknamed as “Super Dan” by Peter Gade, the player undoubtedly lives up to his name. Not only is he a two-time Olympic champion, but also the first men’s singles player to retain the Olympic gold medal by winning in 2008 and defending his title in 2012. Given his stupendous success it comes as no surprise that his fascination with badminton began quite early on in life. Having started playing the sport at five, he turned professional as a teenager. He is well-known for not just his extraordinary playing skills, but also for his fiery temperament and angry outbursts have made him a controversial figure.

Back in the days….

His career took off as he joined the People’s Liberation Army Sports Team. He was enlisted into the Chinese National Badminton Team in 2001 at the age of 18. He won both the team and single events in Badminton Asia Junior Championship in 2000. 2000 World Junior Championships saw him win Chinese team event. 2001 was when he earmarked his professional career.

Outstanding results

Lin Dan is a Chinese badminton player. He is 35 years old, left-handed and he won the BWF  World Championships five times: 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013 (and 2 times runner-up). He won not less than 65 titles in his career and he ended as the runner-up another 23 times. In 743 official matches, Lin Dan won 637 of them – that’s a whopping 85% winning percentage!

The list of wins continues

Lin won the Eddie Choong Player of the Year award for two consecutive years in 2006 and 2007. He also secured the BWF Best Male Player of the Year in 2008. Lin was voted Most Valuable Player (MVP) during the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. On January 16, 2011, he was voted as the 2010 best male athlete in CCTV Sports Personality of the Year for his clean sweep in major badminton titles.

Lin won the German Open, All England Open, became the China Masters champion and extended his reign as the world champion – all in 2007. In 2008, he won his first Swiss Open, the Thailand Open and the highest highest honour of the year – an Olympic gold. Lin won his first ever Asian Games gold medal in November 2010, thus becoming the first player to win all of the present major titles available to Asians in badminton, both individual and national. The following year, he won the first ever million-dollar badminton tournament, the Korea Open, and then the German Open. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Lin retained the Olympic title by defeating his rival Lee Chong Wei by two points.

 Lin has achieved all this while playing his full part in one of the greatest rivalries the sport has ever seen, going head to head time and again with Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei, who was on the other side of the net when the Chinese star won his second Olympic gold in London. That match was their 14th meeting in a major tournament final, just another in a series of truly memorable encounters that has thrilled badminton fans the world over.

Personal life

He has been in a relationship with former world champion Xie Xingfang since 2003. They were engaged on December 13, 2010 in Guangzhou. She initially refused to be engaged but later admitted. He reacted first to the public exposure of their relationship and demanded the right to privacy. They were married on September 23, 2012. The wedding ceremony was held at Beijing University of Technology, where several badminton stars met. Arch rival Lee Chong Wei and Peter Gade. Together they have a son who was born on November 5, 2016.

Just a few weeks after becoming a father, he admitted and apologized for having been unfaithful to the well-known model and actress Zhao Yaqi. His wife at that time was very pregnant with their common child. At Weibo, he wrote, “I want to take it as a man and not make excuses for what I’ve done. But my behavior has already burdened my family and I want to apologize here – sorry”. Shortly afterwards, his wife at Weibo wrote: “Our family will support the man who takes responsibility for his actions and is willing to correct his mistakes.” And added: “I would like to thank friends and fans for their concern. cope with this storm ”.

Sponsors & net worth

He has been officially sponsored by Yonex since 2015, but has played with a Yonex racket since 2014, but without the logo on the strings. Due to a contract between the Chinese Federation and the Chinese brand Li-Ning, he set up a mix of Yonex and Li-Ning from 2014 to 2018. His rackets and shoes were from Yonex while his clothing was from Li-Ning. At All England in 2018, for the first time, he entered the complete Yonex collection, having reached an agreement with the Chinese badminton federation and its sponsor Li-Ning. Hans expressed his delight at this agreement, which he believes is the beginning of a revolution in Chinese sport.

In addition, he is sponsored by: Oakley, Mont Blanc, Pepsi, Gillette, Red Bull, Citroën, L’Oréal and Intel. The contract with Yonex was reported to have brought him over 15 million dollars, while his net worth was valued at around 50 million dollars.

The future

Superstar Lin Dan wants to play long enough for his young son to see him in action – which means he will be around for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, according to reports.
The future might still be in badminton but Lin has also a lot of focus in the fashion business, owning his own underwear brand and also his own Yonex Brand collection.
No matter what the future brings for Lin he will always be remebered as maybe the best player of all time. Thanks for everyting so far… To be continued…