Cai Yun

Jayce September 6, 2024 1 0

Character Introduction

Eddie Cai (蔡赟), born January 19, 1980, alias Cai Ziqiao (蔡子乔), a native of Gusu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, is a Chinese former male badminton player and former captain of the Chinese national badminton team. Originally a singles player, Cai switched to doubles and partnered with Fu Haifeng, known as the “Fengyun Duo”; they won four World Championships men’s doubles titles in 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2011, and were an important part of the Chinese national badminton team’s five consecutive victories in the Thomas Cup and six consecutive victories in the Sudirman Cup. He won the men’s doubles gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, successfully completing the Grand Slam.In late June 2016, Cai Yun announced his official retirement.In 2021, he was inducted into the Badminton World Federation Hall of Fame.

Cai Yun was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, his name was taken by his father, Cai Siguan, who looked through the Xinhua Dictionary, but because the word “Eddie” is more remote, he later changed his name to “Cai Ziqiao” as an alias. As a child, Eddie started to learn accordion at the age of 6. He was awarded a Grade 10 certificate in accordion and performed from time to time. When he was in the third grade of elementary school, his parents felt that he was physically weak and decided to take him to the Suzhou Children’s Amateur Sports School to practice badminton under the introduction of his physical education teacher. By the time he was in the sixth grade, he had already begun to take part in a number of provincial competitions, and later on, he even won the two championships of men’s singles and team at the Provincial Games and entered the Provincial Physical Fitness Team.

In 1998, Cai Yun participated in the National Badminton Championships for the first time, where he beat national team members such as Chen Hong and Ji Xinpeng one after another, and became the only non-national athlete to reach the top eight. He was recruited into the second national team a year later; however, due to his heart problems, he was often unwell, and Zhu Bo, the national team coach, withdrew him from the team in December 2001 after the Ninth National Games. After returning to the provincial team, Cai Yun made a detailed physical examination, and found that his heart was born with more than one small blood vessel, which led to tachycardia, dizziness, asphyxia, and especially easy to fatigue. Cai Yun then received radiofrequency ablation surgery to cure the problem, and in May 2002 back to the national team.

At that time, coinciding with the national team just lost the Thomas Cup, the coaching staff decided to the weak men’s doubles team completely reformed, specially allocated some singles players to support the doubles, Cai Yun thus switch to doubles. Coach Tang Xianhu that Cai Yun is good at using the brain to play, net front technology is exquisite, the rhythm of the shot, line and landing changes are well controlled, just with the left-handed racket, the speed of Fu Haifeng composed of a combination of rigid and flexible. Their technical characteristics have obvious complementary, cooperation effect is excellent, in the combination of a week after the China Badminton Open, this pair of new partners will immediately beat the tournament’s top seed Danish Eriksson / Hansen, successfully entered the semifinals. As the duo’s performances became more and more popular among the outside world, the media and supporters named them after their names (“Feng” means “wind” and “Eddie” means “cloud”), giving them a name that is synonymous with the words “wind” and “cloud”. “), gave them the nickname “wind and cloud combination”.

Since then, Cai Yun / Fu Haifeng became the national team of a pair of key cultivation object, they and in 2004 Thomas Cup as the first men’s doubles, to help the Chinese men’s team in 12 years to regain the Thomas Cup. In the same year, the “wind and clouds combination” for the first time to participate in the Olympic Games, but the final 1-2 (15-3, 11-15, 8-15) against Denmark’s Eriksen / Lengaard, the last eight stop.

In early 2005, Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng won their first open title at the German Open. A week later, they played again in the All England Badminton Open, and in the final to 2-0 (15-10, 15-6) to beat the World Championships champion, the Danish pair Rasmussen / Pask, won the title; this is the Chinese men’s doubles following Li Yongbo / Tian Bingyi in 1991, after 14 years to start again to win the All England Championships. In June of the same year, Cai Yun was selected to represent the Sudirman Cup, and eventually helped the national team to regain this lost trophy.

In 2006, Cai Yun / Fu Haifeng in the beginning of the year to participate in the four open tournaments can enter the quarter-finals and won two championships, the world ranking is also high at No. 1. May, Cai / Fu as the number one men’s doubles, to help the Chinese team in the Thomas Cup final to beat the Danish team, successfully defending the title. In September of the same year, the “wind and clouds combination” to play in the World Badminton Championships held in Spain, the pair of top seeds to four consecutive rounds of 2-0 record to reach the final, against the English combination of Rob Blair/Anthony Clarke; in the end, they only took 27 minutes to 2-0 (21-9, 21-13) to win their opponents! In the end, it only took them 27 minutes to win 2-0 (21-9, 21-13), winning their first individual world championship; this is also the Chinese men’s doubles after 1989, after a lapse of 17 years to regain the World Championships title.

In 2007, the “Fengyun Duo” continued to perform strongly, winning the Singapore Super, Indonesia Super, China Masters and France Super, as well as the runner-up in the All England Super, Denmark Super and Hong Kong Super; and in the team competition, they also helped the Chinese team to successfully defend the Sudirman Cup.

Entering the 2008 Olympic year, Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng won the Korea Open and Thailand Open at the beginning of the year, and helped the Chinese team to achieve a third consecutive victory in the Thomas Cup. In August of the same year, they played in the Men’s Doubles badminton tournament of the Olympic Games as the hosts and the No. 2 seeds of the tournament, and made it to the final against the Indonesian pair, the No. 1 seeds of the tournament, Hendra Setiawan/Markis Kido. In the end, the “wind and clouds combination” in the case of leading a game, by the opponent to 1-2 counter victory, only a silver medal, but has set the best Chinese men’s doubles Olympic results.

After the Beijing Olympics, Cai Yun said he was considering retirement, the coaching team then “wind and cloud combination” split pair, respectively, partner Xu Chen, Shen Ye to play in the Danish Super Tournament. Afterwards, Cai Yun gave up the idea of retirement, “wind and clouds combination” then continue to fight for the London Olympics.

After a disappointing Olympics and a brief breakup, the “Feng Yun” team returned to the court and in August 2009, they once again reached the final of the World Badminton Championships, where they fought for the title against last year’s runners-up, the South Korean duo of Jung Jae Sung/Lee Yong Dae. In the end, the two sides fought to the deciding game, and from 18-18 stalemate to 26-26, Cai Yun / Fu Haifeng in the missed six match points before 28-26 to overcome their opponents, difficult to regain this World Championships title.

After that, Feng Yun experienced a period of slump, only to win the China Masters and Korea Super Tournament runner-up, the world ranking once slipped to 28th. 2010 August, they as the fifth seed to play in the World Badminton Championships, and ultimately, they lost a game first to reverse the world’s No. 1 Malaysian duo of Koo Kin Kiat / Chan Boon Hong 2-1 (18-21, 21-18, 21-14) to win, becoming the world’s most famous badminton team in the history of the World Championships. won, becoming the first men’s doubles pair to win three titles in the history of the World Championships.

A year later, Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng again played in the World Badminton Championships in London. After missing out on the first round, they eliminated Russian, Japanese and Danish players, and faced their arch-rivals Jung Jae-sung/Lee Yong-dae in the semifinals, marking the third consecutive World Championships match between the two teams; in the end, Fung Wan won in straight sets, and battled with the other South Korean pair, Goh Sung-hyun/Yoo Yeon-seung, to win the title[22]. In the final, Feng Yun first saved three set points in the first set of a close win, and then took the second set to defeat their opponents 2-0 (24-22, 21-16), historically realizing a third consecutive World Championships title, and at the same time becoming the first pair to win the World Championships Men’s Doubles title four times.

On August 5, 2012, “Feng Yun” in the final against the world’s third Danish team Mathias Bowie/Karsten Mogensen, and finally, it took them only 45 minutes to defeat their opponents in two sets, 21-16, 21-15, to win the gold medal, and help China’s badminton team for the first time to bag all the hardware of the Olympic Games! .

In late June 2016, Cai Yun announced his official retirement on his microblog, ending his 19-year national team career, and will focus on promoting badminton after his retirement.

On June 2, 2021, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced that Cai Yun was inducted into the Badminton World Federation Hall of Fame along with two other Chinese athletes, Zhang Ning and Fu Haifeng.