Lin Dan, A Majesty Superpower of China's Badminton

by Abdul Rauf Liaqat
(Islamabad, Pakistan)

Lin Dan is a professional badminton player of China. He was born on 14th October 1984 in Longyan, Fujian. In his early years, Lin Dan was forced to play piano by his parents but chose to play badminton in the age of five.

He joined sports scout group at the age of 13 and after five years of continuous hard work, he was selected in a national badminton team in China in 2001 when he was 18. Lin Dan has been nick named by his loving fans as 'Super Dan'.

Lin Dan has been in a romantic relationship with Xie Xingfang since 2003. Xie Xingfang, herself is a former world champion badminton player. They were quietly married on 13 December 2010. Both of them denied initially but when reporters got the evidence, they admitted on the news.

International Career:-

2001 considered as the start of Lin's professional career. In his first final at the Asia Badminton Championship, he was badly beaten by his country mate Xia Xuanze.

Lin also participated in other four tournaments same year, where he was knocked out without coming close to the victories. He was severely defeated in the first round of the Singapore and Indonesia Opens, second round of the Denmark Open and third round of the China Open.

In 2003, Lin reached in the finals of Japan open and once again he was beaten by his own country mate Xia Xuanze. After then Lin made his debut in World Championship in Birmingham and successfully passed his first two rounds but in the third round he was beaten again by Xia Xuanze.

After the world meet, he was eliminated in the semifinals of the Singapore Open, third round of the Indonesia Open and second round of the Malaysia Open.

In 2004, Lin didn't left the rope of hard work and commitment and at last he captured world rank number one for the first time in February. He won qualifying round of Thomas cup and then won Swiss open. In the same year he also won his first All England Championship by beating Peter Gade in the finals.

Later in 2004, Lin was thrashed out in Malaysia Open. He had a leg injury in July and at the same time he was crashed in Olympics by Ronald Susilo of Singapore who claimed that 'Lin was too eager to win'.

Lin retained his number one world ranking during 2005, winning his second German and Hong Kong Open titles, as well as the Japan Open, China Masters, and World Cup tournaments. But ultimately failed to retain his All England title and lost a three set match against his team mate Chen Hong. Lin also lost Malaysia Open in the finals and beaten by Lee Chong Wei, a rising star of Malaysia.

In his dream to capture his first world title in 2005, he beat many of the world stars but unluckily he was beaten in the final by Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia.


In 2006 he won six individual titles for himself. He recaptured All England, won Chinese Taipei Open, Macau Open, Hong Kong Open, Japan Open and his first world title after beating his compatriot Bao Chunlai in the final.

In August 2007, Lin Dan equals the record of Yang Yang of winning back to back world championship. Lin Dan won his second world title against Indonesian's seed Sony Dwi Kuncoro held in Kuala Lumpur.

In March 2008 Lin Dan suffered another defeat in All England by his country mate Chen Jin. This defeat was followed by accusations that Lin gave the match to Chen Jin in order to increase his rankings. In Olympic games 2008, he played a dream final against Lee Chong Wei and won a straight game of 21-12, 21-8 and became the first men's singles player to hold a Olympic gold as a 1st seed.

In 2009, Lin won his 4th All England title by defeating LCW. Lin then participated in World Championship and became the first man to won 3 world titles. He beat Chen Jin in the finals of World Championship in Hyderabad, India.

Lin's start of 2010 was not so impressive when he had to face his defeat in All England and Swiss Open tournaments. However, Lin managed to win his first ever Asian Games gold medal in November, thus becoming the first player to win all of the present major titles available in badminton, both individual and national team.

Lin's hope to win 5 times All England open was crashed by LCW when he was beaten by the Malaysian seed in the final. However, Lin Dan took his revenge by winning his fourth World Championships title against LCW in August in Wembley Arena, a venue which will host the same competition for 2012 Summer Olympics.

Lin Dan Millionaire:-

Lin's monthly salary in 2006 was barely 2000 Yuan. At that time, advertisement was his main source of income, boosting him up to 1.7million yuan that year. His income became more as he got attention by his Chinese fans and advertising companies. All of sudden in 2008, he became the hot favorite of advertisers and his salary jumped to 12.5 million yuan annually.

Of course, his healthy image, handsome look and trendy fashion style has make him one of the most popular athlete in China. Lin Dan also well known for his strong passion in sports car, in which he owns Nissan GTR, BMW Z4 and many more.

Despite all the history, despite all the national heroes of generations past, the Chinese have never found a badminton artist like Super Dan. By the time when Lin retires, he will rank among the best players, one with an unusual varied skill set.

picture source:- Google Images

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