PARIS 2024 BADMINTON: ALL RESULTS, AS CHINESE TAIPEI LEE YANG AND WANG CHI-LIN GO BACK TO BACK IN MEN DOUBLES
Jayce
Lee Yang of Chinese Taipei concluded his career with an emphatic statement: an Olympic gold medal.
Lee and Wang Chi-lin made history by becoming the first pair to win the men’s doubles title twice, following a gripping 21-17, 18-21, 21-19 victory over Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang of the People’s Republic of China at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday, 4 August.
The Tokyo 2020 champions also secured the first gold medal for their country in this edition of the Games. After the match, Lee announced it was the final match of his career.
“This is my last time, which is why I kissed the court to bid a proper farewell,” said Lee, who will turn 29 in eight days. “I will go to school to become an instructor and hopefully I can help develop the game of badminton.”
The Malaysian pair, Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh, defeated Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen to claim their second successive bronze medal.
The match lasted 76 minutes and had the Porte de la Chapelle Arena rocking. The contest was so close that a third game seemed almost certain from the start. The biggest lead in the entire match was a mere four points by the winners in the decisive set.
Wang Chang remarked that it was arguably the toughest match he and his partner had played in recent memory.
“The difference in the third game was two points,” Wang said. “I think it was one of the most intense matches we have played recently.”
Lee acknowledged that the three-year journey from Tokyo to back-to-back titles was a challenging one, marked by some criticism in their homeland.
However, he noted that they used the criticism as motivation to become the first men from Chinese Taipei to win multiple Olympic gold medals in any sport.
“When we won in Tokyo, not many people knew us. Now people recognize us,” Lee said. “We did not play well last year. We heard some people say that we were not good enough to represent our country.
“But despite being drawn into the toughest group, we still came away with a gold medal.”
Wang Chi-lin added: “We did experience a lot of ups and downs, but we managed to find a way to win. After the draw, we knew every match would be difficult.
“We grew amid all the negative comments. Our efforts were totally worth it.”
The badminton competition concludes on Monday with the two singles finals.
