SUZHOU, China, May 19 (Xinhua) — China’s Olympic champion Chen Long introduced his retirement from worldwide badminton on the ongoing 2023 Sudirman Cup right here on Friday.
Chen, 34, is China’s most profitable badminton males’s singles participant after Lin Dan, taking Olympic bronze, gold and silver medals within the males’s singles at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 respectively. He additionally gained the World Championships twice in 2014 and 2015, in addition to 5 Sudirman Cup and three Thomas Cup wins.
“I decided to retire from the national team after discussing with my family, because I wasn’t able to accompany my son for a long time during my preparations for Tokyo 2020. It was not easy for my wife to take care of the whole family all by herself,” Chen stated at a retirement ceremony held by Chinese Badminton Association.
Chen has not participated in worldwide tournaments since shedding the boys’s singles last to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen at Tokyo 2020. The final occasion he competed in was China’s 2021 National Games.