Thrid time's the charm? Not quite....

It’s been about 5 days since the Olympics got over and everone has been talking about Simone Biles, Usain Bolt, Micheal Phelps and all the great stories of the game. There were other great stories such as the diversity seen in the women’s beach volleyball competition, the awarding of the Coubertin medal for sportsmanship, the selfie between 2 athletes from the North and South Korean contingents.

But amongst all these stories lies one man, whose almost there story at the games continued. Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia was the losing finalist at the Beijing and London Olympics. On both instances he suffered defeat in the finals to Lin Dan.  However in Rio he managed to get the better of his eternal rival in the semi-finals (Third time’s the charm). However standing between him and the elusive gold medal was China’s Chen Long. Now that the “DAN” barrier was cleared many people around the world (myself included) thought that Lee Chong Wei would finally secure his long overdue gold medal.

He headed into the final as a favourite, on seeding and on form, but the 1 thing that was against him… was age. His opponent was 6 years younger and at 27 was at an age that is considered to be the peak age in a sportspersons career. Chen outclassed Lee in the final and won it in 2 straight games with the identical score line of 21-18(not quite)

 Lee Chong Wei had his 3^rd silver medal in the Men’s Singles competition at the Olympics and at 33 years old, he doesn’t have age on his side. He’ll be 37 at Tokyo in 4 years’ time and no matter how fantastic a player he is, 37 is too old for a badminton star to be performing at his peak.(we can’t say for sure though as sports has seen many age defying miracles of this kind before). Lee however even in defeat has made sure that he has more Olympic medals than Dan. Will the two be back in Tokyo? Or was this edition of the Olympics a passing of the torch between the greatest names in Badminton (Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan) to the next generation(Chen Long) and Viktor Axelson (the man who beat Lin Dan in the bronze medal match)

All we can do is wait and watch. Lee and Lin’s supremacy is waning, the chasing pack have almost caught up! Men’s Singles Badminton has never been this exciting for some time now.