|
Gong Ruina Retires at the Top of Her Game
"Retirement itself is the best gift. No gold watch could ever top it" said Abigail Charleson. China's Gong Ruina has retired from badminton. She retired from badminton at 25 years old.
She is one of a few professional athletes that retired in the prime of their career. She has accomplished a lot in her short career. Therefore, she sees retirement as a way to explore other opportunities in her life.
Gong Ruina retired from badminton on June 7,2005. She is still remembered in Chinese badminton for her accomplishments. She had a short career. However, she dominated women's badminton for six years. She won the 2001 IBF World Championships that were held in Seville, Spain.
She also won the All England Championships in 2004. In addition, she was a bronze medalist at the 1999 IBF World Championships in Copenenhagen and a silver medalist at the 2003 IBF World Championships in Birmingham, England.
Gong Ruina is one of only a few elite athletes that retired in the prime of their careers. However, professional athletes such as Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, and Bjorn Borg all retired at
very young ages too. Jim Brown is considered by many to be the greatest running back in NFL history.
He retired at the age of 29. He ended his outstanding career in 1965. He still is the Cleveland Brown's all time leading rusher and the NFL's eighth all time leading rusher. Likewise, Bjorn Borg was a phenomenal tennis player and legend of the sport. He retired at the very young age of 26. It was a shock to the tennis world when he retired so young.
He had an outstanding career that included 11 Grand Slam singles titles between 1974 and 1981. He is ranked fourth on the list of tennis players that won the most Grand Slam singles titles behind only Peter Sampras (14), Roger Federer (13) and Roy Emerson (12).
Similarly, Barry Sanders was one of the best running backs in NFL history. He retired at the prime of his career at 30 years old. NFL and football fans everywhere were all surprised when he announced he was retiring. Especially since he was only one good season away from beating Walter Payton's rushing record of 16,752 yards for a career.
Despite, retiring he still has amassed the 3rd most rushing yards in a NFL career behind only Walter Payton and Emmitt Smith. He had a good career and was a beloved athlete throughout his career. One of his several accomplishments included rushing for more than 1,000 yards for ten consecutive seasons.
She has a plenty of opportunities to keep her busy now that her badminton career has ended. She is planning to take a part in some public events and she wants to be involved in TV drama productions. For example, she is helping in producing a drama that relates to the 2008 Beijing Games.
Her popularity has led her to be invited to be a guess for variety shows. She as well wants to promote the sport she loves badminton. She wants to help bring even more interest to professional badminton.
Gong Ruina will not be forgotten in the world of badminton. If she works as hard in her new profession as she did in badminton, then she will continue to be a success in whatever she does. She has a variety of interests to keep her busy.
She decided to leave the sport on her own terms and she will be in that select group of great athletes that retired from their sport in their prime and did not keep playing until they had nothing left.
|
|
|
|
|
