Lin Dan re-enters the spotlight at All England championship after cheating scandal
Badminton star blew up Chinese internet last year when photos of him with another woman went viral
Lin Dan didn’t retire after the Rio de Janeiro Olympics when most observers thought he would.
The world’s greatest badminton player could have finished years ago without regrets.
By the end of 2011, Lin owned every major title except for the European Championship, and only because he’s Chinese. The following year he repeated as Olympic champion in London, released his autobiography “To the End of the World,” and was still looking ahead.
The man dubbed “Super Dan” for more than a decade is wealthy (the second-highest earning athlete in China in 2015 according to Forbes) and famous (his wax figure is in Madame Tussauds). So what keeps him playing?
“I still have the passion,” he says.
Which is why Lin is in Birmingham to defend the All England Open title from Wednesday, even though he’s won badminton’s oldest championship six times already. His history of glorious comebacks means nobody is willing to rule him out of ultimately matching the great Rudy Hartono’s eight titles in the 1960s-70s. But if Lin wins again this week, it will be despite the most turbulent time in his career.