
Paris: Attention all men’s singles players, Viktor Axelsen has expressed his desire to compete in 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Although Axelsen has reached his thirties and dropped down to World No.2, he continues to be one of the greatest players badminton has seen. In the final match of the Paris Olympics on Monday night, he squarely defeated Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn, the reigning world champion who was on fire, winning his previous match with two scores of 21-11.
Axelsen, the reigning Olympic Champion with gold medals at both the Paris and Tokyo Olympics, has now matched China’s “Super Dan” Lin Dan’s record of consecutive gold models in men’s singles, who achieved this feat with gold’s at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics.
However, beyond just matching, he also surpassed Lin Dan as the most successful men’s singles player in Olympic history, with 2 gold medals and 1 bronze under his belt. Axelsen had won his bronze in men’s singles at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
After the match, Axelsen gave his respect to Lin Dan, stating:
“Lin Dan is the greatest men’s singles player in history and my idol. I am just a tall guy from Odense, and achieving this is amazing. Lin Dan’s consecutive wins inspired me greatly. I told myself, if Lin Dan could do it, maybe I could too, so I prepared as best as I could for this Olympics.”
“I can’t believe I’ve won my second Olympic gold medal. When Lin Dan won his second Olympic gold, I watched his match on TV and told myself that if I could win one Olympic gold, I would be very happy. Now I can’t believe I have won two. I am so happy! Now I want to enjoy this gold medal.”
Finally, Axelsen mentioned that in the future, if he were to stay motivated and perform well in major tournaments, he may attempt to participate in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. He would be 34 years old. Humongous props to him!