Rio
Olympics 2016 : Let’s try one more time champ : A Tribute in support of Lee
Chong Wei
“And then I saw him on his knees, with tears of remorse in
his eyes, a hush among the Malaysian fans in the stadium. He had lost that last
point of the game and the match, the most important match of his career to Lin
Dan once again. The history had repeated itself. After a lot of hard work for 4
years, by pushing himself again and again beyond his limits, he found himself
struck in the same situation in a different way.”
-2012 London Olympics
I didn’t know who Lee Chong Wei was or how this lovely game
of badminton works during 2012 Olympics or 2013. In 2014, as I was getting
introduced to this game properly, I started digging in the history of
badminton, started watching matches on internet.
There I saw Lee in the Olympics 2012 semifinal for the first
time, when he triumphed the ticket to finals easily. He was looking
indestructible and I couldn’t imagine him getting defeated at that time. But
the reality was different , he fell in the final. I didn’t understand much at
that time what that gold medal was meant to him until I searched like
everything about this man on internet.
Lee Chong Wei, a legendary player, whom destiny always
disappointed him at big competitions. He was consistent, winning about every single
match in his career, stayed world no. 1 most of the time but failing in finals
of biggest competitions of game. He is five times silver medalist at World
Championships and two times silver medalist at Olympics. He never got to win
the elusive gold.
Now Lee has been playing badminton professionally for more
than ten years. He qualified for 2004 Olympics but got defeated in the second
round. It is actually an achievement to qualify at Olympics at the starting of
your career so this was a small boost for Lee.
He worked hard for next four years. He saw no. of great
players rising and falling in this period ,lifted himself up accordingly and
there he was in the Olympics 2008 finals (only Malaysian ever qualifying for
Olympics finals), his hard word had paid him and he was ready to win this
Olympics gold medal which is every player’s dream.
Perhaps his density wanted something else for him. He got
defeated by his biggest rival, Lin Dan. May be his hunger for win was’t enough
as compared to super dan. So he just accepted his defeat easily and decided to move on.
An ordinary player might have been given up after this
failure but he was’t ordinary, he did’t want to give up so he pushed himself
hard again, moved on from his failure, redefined his targets and he became ready
to move on his unfeasible journey of winning Olympics gold medal again
after 4 years. In this period he had to face no. of rising players, other
senior players and a lot of critics who would talk about his age, his weaknesses, his ability to win but all he had to do was try step by step and he
did.
He stayed world no 1 at the end of each year for
continuously 4 years. He saw ups and downs in his career but didn’t give up.
“Miracles happen when you try”
So there he was again in the final of of the Olympics 2012
after defeating every single opponent in his path of victory and this time his
hunger had grown more than anyone.
But there was other part of story, once again someone was
standing in his path and this was someone who deprived him from getting to the
greatest again and again and he also didn’t want to loose. He was Lin Dan.
So these two champs battled with everything they had. Lee
dominated most of the time in the match, he was close to his dream.
“Every blessing ignored becomes a curse”
Same thing happened with him, he made some foolish mistakes
at the end of the game. He just gifted two points to Lin Dan when each and
every point had the price of blood and sweat. This was the end , this gold
medal had been eluded from his hands. He was helpless.
'And then I saw him on his knees………………………………………'
8 Months of Doping Ban
At the end of year 2014, I started to know him more
clearly. I read a no. of articles about him, watched his matches. Then I heard
this shocking news , he had failed a dope test before some time and he was
banned from the game for 2 years.
At first it seemed quite real to me in a funny way,
like he had started taking drugs because he is always loosing big matches. But
no it wasn’t like that, he was fighting against this ban. I felt bad, very very
bad for him. This suspension could deprived him of even playing in Olympics
2016, which was his last hope.
“Just do what you love and believe in and success
will come naturally”
Lee was fighting for what he loved in his life ,what
he had put always at first ahead of everything, so his passion paid and his
appeal to remove ban upon him was accepted. The two year ban was reduced to
just 8 months.
In May 2015, I saw him on the badminton court once
again. I was happy for him.
RIO OLYMPICS 2016: Try one more time champ
“You can’t spell victory without three words-TRY”
It’s not that much easy to keep moving forward after
failing again and again. Probably he is one of the greatest examples of
persistence in the history of great people.
“Pain is temporary, it may last for a minute or an
hour or a day or even a year but eventually it will subside and something else
will take it’s place, if by quit however it will last forever.”
This man taught me a lot, never quit is probably on
the top of the list. He was, he is, he will be a legend. There are millions of
fans of this man all across the world and every one of them wants him to win
this elusive gold at Rio Olympics 2016. I support him from the bottom of my
heart and want to tell him only one thing that ‘hey no matter what, no matter
how many matches you have lost, no matter what people say about you, you are
always my hero.
Sometimes life is really unfair to us but that
couldn’t be a valid reason to stop and never try. So I want to say this to you
‘let’s try
one more time champ’ u can win , even if u won’t u have won millions of
hearts already.
BEST OF LUCK LEE.
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