The Paris World Championships feel a little quiet and shorn of magic. The women’s singles draw for the first time in years, has neither Carolina Marin nor Tai Tzu-ying. The glorious careers might, or might not be over (Read On), but badminton this edition wears a wistful look with big names like Daddies, Lee Yang, Nozomi Okuhara, He Bing Jiao, Kento Momota not being around as athletes.
While Momota and half-Daddy Hendra Setiawan were spotted courtside as coaches, Taiwanese double gold medallist in Men’s doubles has become Sports Minister of the country, post his retirement.
Marin and Tai Tzu-ying though have been fan favourites even in India, and life beyond badminton or on its peripheral rim appears like a glorious sunset, with the game not far behind.
What was Marin been up to? Just this week, the Spaniard who went out tragically from Paris Games two points away from a medal due to a knee injury, posted a happy set of pictures on Instagram. Riding horses on the beach with her group of friends, the Huelleva shuttler wrote, “Friends, Horses and Beach. I don’t need much more to live an unforgettable day. And so it has been. Happiness is usually short lived, but how beautiful it is when it feels…”
Her exit from the Olympics was teary, after she snapped her knee going for a jump lunge. And she wrote a poignant memory post of how life tends to throw tough times the way of athletes and the best plans and preparation reduced to nothing but stabbing recollections.
She even travelled to Peru for an extended stay, starting off a badminton program there. Back in Madrid, she noted with Parus on her mind, “One more time I won’t be able to play at the bwf world championship. But here we are. I send you all the best to all the players.”
However more and more videos hint at her slowly (piano) building up to elite levels, though she’s officially called it off. She even made it to the Legends Tour playing alongside Lin Dan and Peter Gade and Bing Jiao in China.
But a recent video had her training multi shuttle, net shots, mopping the court, assembling shuttles after training, speaking to coaches – and while the speed is a fraction, and she dropped hints of uncertainty over the goal, a comeback can’t be ruled out. One without deadlines.
“One more time I won’t be able to play at the bwf world championship. But here we are. I send you all the best to all the players,” she posted last week. And “happy with what I do,” after a reel of a light practice session, as her fans dubbed her Guerrero (warrior).
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Tai Tzu-ying’s life after retirement
Tai Tzu-ying meanwhile is properly retired. And besides visiting resorts across Taiwan, setting up badminton facilities, she also took a vacation with her family, sister and others to Switzerland earlier in the summer.
Dai Zho as she is known in Taiwan, visited the iconic Matterhorn, a pyramid shaped mountain in the Swiss Alps at 4478 metres, and enjoyed all the associated activities – sky diving, cable ride, snow peaks reflecting orange sunset and ice cream.
“I’m a beginner in cutting (reels), too low, too open, no music behind,” she apologised to fans about the post, excited to make reels the way they usually look. But she had some typically quirky shots – her sister whose one eye glass of her shades broke, and the pyramid mountain itself being her muse.
Later, she opened a tribute exhibition dedicated to her at Bathhouse back in Taiwan. Besides her medals and gear, it had her Keychains and iconic head bands.
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Like Kidambi Srikanth, Tai Tzu-ying’s reels always capture the quirky, beautiful frames of all things animate and inanimate. A badminton racquet isn’t far off, but Paris is slightly low of beautiful badminton this year.
