Possibly the best badminton player ever was christened "Super Dan" way back in 2004. Exactly how good he was likely to become over the following 16 decades, nobody can imagine. The Longyan-born Chinese sportsman had finished the hopeless sounding 'Super Grand Slam' from age 28: winning all the nine big badminton tournaments accessible -- such as the Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, and other majors of this game.
In his house state for Beijing 2008, Dan turned into a national celebrity. The home crowd went crazy to salute one of the heroes of the Games.
Four decades later, he repeated the effort. He again confronted the brilliant Lee at the closing -- and missing the first match of the gold medal game, also -- but demonstrated extraordinary courage and ability to burst back and keep his Olympic title. He was the first male athlete to handle the feat.
Dan is extremely healthy, and despite being 36 as Tokyo 2020 strategies, is distressed to have a crack at winning what is a historic third name. Despite slumping from the ranks, he's driven as ever. "Qualifying into the Tokyo Olympics is the biggest obstacle," he explained recently. "I shall continue to perform my best and try to get better results from competitions.
"All I have done and what I shall endeavor to keep performing in competitions and training is to attempt and qualify for Tokyo. Knowing the travel will be exceedingly hard, I'll try as hard as I can." Whether he gets it or not, Super Dan will probably always be a legend of the game.
Read more about Lin Dan
Also check Today's Birthday