CHINA – New couples in Team China

Romance blooms again on the Chinese national badminton team.

By Lee Suetyan, Badzine Correspondent.  Photos: Badmintonphoto

Romances among team-mates are not new in Team China. In the past, we have already seen many couples in the China badminton team, including retired champions Sun Jun and Ge Fei.  Also, former World Champions Lin Dan and Xie Xingfang have been a very public couple but Xie’s retirement seemed to mean that Team China was back down to business.  That is, until the recent Japan Open, when Zhang Nan showed his feelings toward partner Zhao Yunlei after they defeated their team-mates in the mixed doubles final. And thus, their relationship was officially revealed to the world.

Zhang Nan is 20 this year and is moving up the ranks in men’s doubles and mixed doubles whereas Zhao Yunlei, 24 this year, has already established herself in mixed doubles and women’s doubles, where she has already been to world #1 and back.

In fact, Zhang and Zhao are not the only new couple on the block, either.  Singles specialists Wang Zhengming and Jiang Yanjiao also began a relationship not long ago. Wang Zhengming, 21 this year, was the 2008 World Junior Champion and has been demonstrating that he is  a promising men’s singles star of the future, reaching the final of this year’s Badminton Asia Championships, whilst 24-year-old Jiang Yanjiao is again climbing up the women’s singles top 10.  She just won the recent Japan Open WS champion by defeating the current world number 1 Wang Xin in the final.

Athletes are humans, and they need romance just like the rest of us. But they are not quite ordinary people, so maybe their romances need to be unusual as well, romances that motivate them to defend the nation’s honour.  This recalls a statement made by Li Yongbo, the national team head coach who, a few years back, when Lin Dan and Xie Xingfang’s relationship was revealed: “If romance can motivate our players but does not negatively affect their normal training, I can’t find any reason to oppose these couples.”