The interloper in the basement

In the eyes of many, Lin Dan is simply the darling of fate, both in career and in love, having what many people can only dream of when they are in their prime.

To many people, Lin Dan is simply the darling of fate, with a bumper crop of both career and love, having what many people dream of when he is in his prime. But in fact, Lin Dan's years of filming can never be described as smooth, but full of hardships and pains. For more than ten years, he was fired from his job, was hidden, lived in a basement, and was subjected to countless people's abuse and ridicule. But with his courage and persistence, Lin Dan carried everything through, finally bringing his potential to its fullest and surpassing himself again and again.

The interloper in the basement

Most people who are familiar with Lin Dan know that he has a background of being a soldier, having spent time in the 81st team, but most people do not know that this military service was not voluntary, but a choice made out of desperation.

At the age of 12, Lin Dan had won the boys' singles championship of the national children's badminton tournament. At that time, his biggest dream was to enter the Fujian team, and he was also confident that he would be selected for the Fujian team. But what he didn't expect was that most of his classmates in the gymnasium were picked by the Fujian team, and he was the only one who went to the Bayi team. This was a very big blow to Lin Dan at that time and made him frustrated for a long time, always thinking about why the Fujian team did not want him.

When he first joined the 81st team, Lin Dan had not yet started to develop and was too big to wear the smallest size of uniform. Several years of military life honed Lin Dan's will and made him an increasingly professional ball player. Because of his outstanding performance, Lin Dan was picked by the Chinese youth badminton team to represent Fujian at the 1998 Asian Championships, not expecting to lose at the hands of an Indonesian player as soon as the match started.

After returning home, Lin Dan was severely criticized by all the coaches, who scolded him for his lack of willpower and professionalism, and for giving up as soon as he could not beat his opponent. Lin Dan thought that it would be enough if the coaches scolded him, but a more severe punishment was still to come: in view of his poor performance on the court, the national youth team unanimously decided to remove him from the team. Lin Dan was unprepared for this and went to a meeting in the auditorium after returning to the team, but as soon as he sat down, one of the coaches said with a stern face, "You don't have to sit here anymore, you've been removed from the team." In this way, Lin Dan walked out of the meeting room in a wretched and embarrassed manner under the watchful eyes of all the players.

Just like that, Lin Dan entered the national youth team in less than a month and was driven back to the Bayi team. This painful lesson made him understand that the tournament was such a serious matter, and that he could not just lose if he felt bad one day. So he began to devote himself to training frantically, desperately trying to improve his professional skills, and finally returned to the national youth team three months later.

In 2000, the national team went to the youth team to select talents. Because of his naughtiness and stubbornness, Lin Dan left an impression of insubordination to the coaches, so he was not included in the first selection list. In the end, it was the director of the Bayi team, Gao Lujiang, who asked for connections to get Lin Dan into the national team. In this way, Lin Dan, who was about to overage, finally caught the last train and became an interloper for the national team.

When he first joined the national team, Lin Dan was placed in a dormitory converted into a basement. The basement was not only dark and humid, but also had no signal, so he had to stand on the bed when sending text messages, and then sit down again when the messages were sent. But what was hardest for Lin Dan was not the poor conditions in the basement, but the omnipresent and depressing atmosphere. Because he was a "backdoor student", Lin Dan always heard a lot of gossip that he was not capable of doing anything on his own and that he was only on the national team because of his connections. Many of Lin Dan's teammates had already won the world championship, which made him so inferior that he didn't dare to look up at people when he ate in the cafeteria, keeping his head down and eating as fast as he could.

During the time he lived in the basement, Lin Dan kept increasing the intensity of his training under tremendous pressure and tried to prove himself with all his might, finally winning a few titles and giving himself and Director Gao a breath of fresh air. A year and a half later, Lin Dan finally moved out of the basement and lived in the dormitory upstairs.

Those were called

"The Years of "Lin Round

In the six months after he moved out of the basement, Lin Dan's competition career went smoothly, but it did not last long, as the international badminton world soon changed the points system from the original 7-point system back to the 15-point system, which was a fatal blow to Lin Dan. Because he did not adjust his tactics in time, Lin Dan was eliminated in the first round in his next three matches. From the second half of 2002, Lin Dan was eliminated in the first round in almost every match he played. Gradually, Lin Dan got a new nickname, "Lin Round".

The successive defeats made Lin Dan unbalanced, and he began to doubt himself and even became fearful of the competition. On the one hand, Lin Dan was desperate to prove himself, but on the other hand, he lacked confidence in himself. At the same time, Lin Dan also heard the news that he had been "snowed in" by the national team, which made him even more frustrated. For the next half a year, Lin Dan had no matches to play and had to practice with many inexperienced juniors.

Because of his hiding, Lin Dan lost his eligibility to participate in the All England Open, a heavyweight tournament in the international badminton world, which had always been his dream, but at that time he could only watch other teammates go to the tournament. At that time, Lin Dan was like a trapped beast, desperately trying to break through the huge net woven by fate. He was desperately fighting with himself, practicing like crazy, just to overcome his demons and get the chance to play again.

Six months later, Lin Dan used his hard work to win a chance to play in the Japan Open, and won the runner-up title. The following year, he went to the All England Open with a clear mind and finally won the championship with an outstanding performance, and won the praise of the world's top player, Pete Gade, who called him "SUPER DAN". Since then, the title of "SUPER DAN" has been heard all over the world, and Lin Dan finally washed away the shame of "one round must lose" and became one of the strongest players in the international badminton world.

It is worth mentioning that later in his career, Lin Dan won the All England Tournament five times, making up for the regret of not being able to participate.

Passing through doubts and slanders

After becoming a rookie, Lin Dan carried the hopes of countless people, and his aspirations for the Olympics gradually became the focus of his life, as everyone, including himself, was looking forward to his gold medal at the Athens Olympics to bring glory to his country.

However, fate played a joke on Lin Dan at this time, giving him a fatal blow. Before the Athens Olympics, Lin Dan was accidentally injured, and he was so emotionally stressed that he played badly, repeating his first round exit and being eliminated in the group stage.

In the following games, Lin Dan suffered several "storms", losing to foreign players Tao Fike and Li Zongwei in succession. At this point, the criticism of him began to intensify, with many fans leaving messages saying that the uncrowned king, Lin Dan, was obviously a liar, and others flirting with Lin Dan, who had been playing with his left hand, saying that even if he had played with his right hand, he would not have lost so badly.

So, Lin Dan actively adjusted his condition under the tremendous pressure, trying to figure out the tactics and trying to prove himself in the subsequent matches. But as the Beijing Olympics approached, Lin Dan was subjected to more and more criticism, first with his Korean coach, and then with his coach, Ji Xinpeng, who had a misunderstanding and was described by the media as hitting someone. At that time, almost all the unfavorable rumors started to target Lin Dan, who described those days as "full of slander".

In such an atmosphere, Lin repeatedly admonished himself that if he could not change, he had to endure and break through in the process. Finally, he had his moment in the tournament, defeating his rival Li Zongwei with a perfect performance and getting his first Olympic title in his life. After the victory, Lin Dan excitedly threw his racket into the sky, rolled a few times on the ground in excitement, and then hugged the coaches tightly. After all, he had waited too long for this moment!

Over the next few years, Lin Dan took advantage of his success and unleashed the energy of the "Super Dan", winning almost every major and minor tournament, completing his mission of "Grand Slam". In the 2012 London Olympics, Lin Dan once again won the title and successfully defended it, achieving an unbeatable myth in the international badminton world.