Mads Pieler Kolding – World Record Holder of Fastest Smash in A Competition, Retires from Badminton
Copenhagen: Denmark’s former men’s doubles World No. 4 and 2016 European Championships gold medalist – Mads Pieler Kolding announced his retirement from badminton at age 33.
Kolding who holds the world record of the fastest badminton smash in an actual competition, smashed the shuttlecock at an incredible speed of 426 km/h or roughly 265 mph when he played for the Chennai Smashers in India’s 2017 Premier League. He was also a part of the Denmark team that won the 2016 Thomas Cup.
Watch how Kolding created that record:
On Thursday, in an emotional message posted on his social media page, Kolding announced that he is retiring from professional badminton:
“So this is it!! I have decided to call it quits after a long time thinking back and forth, this is the right decision for me and my family.
Of course, it’s not easy saying goodbye to a sport / life that has given me so many crazy experiences throughout the years, being a young boy dreaming of becoming a professional badminton player to actually live a life like one, is has been such an amazing ride🙏🏻😁 And I will forever cherish the memories this sport has given me🏸
Lastly I would like to say a huge thanks to all my teammates, coaches, partners, compatriots and fans, thanks for being a big part of my life🙏🏻
Now it’s time to enjoy “retirement life” the upcoming period before opening a new and exciting chapter of the beautiful thing called life🍾🥂✌🏻
Kolding”
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One of the most insane badminton rallies of all-time featuring Kolding and his partner Mads Conrad-Petersen:
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In addition to becoming a popular men’s doubles player, Kolding is also famously known to be one of the tallest male badminton players in the world with a height of 205cm.
So, when the Badminton World Federation (BWF) decided to launch a new kind of service rule in 2018 which stated:
“The whole of the shuttle should be below 1.15m from the surface of the court at the instant of being hit by the server’s racket.”
Both Kolding and another tall player from Denmark – the Tokyo Olympic men’s singles gold medalist, Viktor Axelsen who stands at 194 cm, have criticized the ruling, stating that the change was really hard to understand.
Below is a funny video from Kolding and Axelsen making fun of the 1.15m service rule.
Another video showed Kolding trying to get use to the 1.15m service rule.
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BadmintonPlanet.com would like to wish Kolding success in his future endeavors.
Happy retirement Mads Pieler Kolding! (photo: Shi Tang/Getty Images)
