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Denmark’s Victor Axelsen cheers after winning the men’s badminton final. © Reuters = News1 © News1 Reporter Hyungki Park
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Axelsen crying after winning the men’s badminton singles © Reuters=News1 © News1 Reporter Park Hyung-ki
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Axelsen exchanging jerseys with his opponent, Chen Long of China, after the match © Reuters=News1 © News1 Reporter Park Hyung-ki
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Axelsen is still crying after exchanging uniforms with Chun Rong © Reuters = News1 © News1 Reporter Hyungki Park
In the men’s badminton singles final at the Olympics, a Danish player defeated a Chinese player to win the gold medal, and his popularity is exploding in China.
Here’s the story: Denmark’s badminton representative, Victor Axelsen, won the gold medal in the men’s singles badminton event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by defeating China’s Chunlong, the ‘defending champion’.
He defeated China’s Chen Long 2-0 in the men’s singles gold medal match at the Tokyo Olympics held at Musashinonomori Sports Plaza in Tokyo, Japan on the 2nd.
Axelsen, who won the bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, succeeded in changing the medal color to gold in Tokyo.
The moment the match was over, Axelsen couldn’t control his emotions and cried.
As he cried, he approached Chen Long, gave him a deep hug, said, “You have inspired me a lot, and you are still my idol,” and offered to exchange his uniform.
Chen Rong readily accepted this, and the two players exchanged uniforms. “I hope you enjoy this moment to your heart’s content,” said Chen Rong. “See you next time.” He gave a thumbs up.
In an interview after the match, Axelsen said, “He has been a motivator for me for a long time. Regardless of whether he wins or loses a match, Chen Long is the idol of many badminton players, and I also consider him an idol. I look forward to seeing him again next time.” .
Although they won, the Chinese fans were moved by the way they treated their opponents, and they are pouring their support for Axelsen.
Axelsen is already famous in China enough to have a Chinese name. He learned badminton from a young age, taking the Chinese badminton hero Lin Dan as his idol, and has a Chinese name of ‘An Xilong’.
The reason he learned Chinese was because a Chinese coach coached the Danish national team. He started learning Mandarin from a Chinese coach and is now fluent in Mandarin. There is no difficulty at all in communicating with Chinese fans in Chinese.
When he won the Olympics, Chinese fans cheered, “Our side won,” Xinhua reported.
