Retired badminton star sweats over sport’s future
Print Edition
Peter Gade is a bit worried about badminton’s future with the approaching retirement of big names like China’s Lin Dan and Malaysian Lee Chong Wei.
The 36-year-old Dane and former World No. 1 retired at the end of last year, and has since been looking for a new role to build on his professional career.
Gade was in town on Tuesday to promote the 2014 Badminton World Championship to be held from August 25 to 31 in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he now lives.
He was warmly welcomed and demonstrated his skills in a mini-competition against fans in Shanghai. Known for fast attacks, smooth footwork and constant pressure, Gade was one of the best-known European shuttlers, and occupied the World No. 1 rank for 62 weeks since October 1997.
Despite top play, he never managed a major title in his two-decade professional career on stages such as the Olympic Games, World Championships and Thomas Cup tournaments. He was often defeated by Asian opponents in crucial matches.
Gade played against Chinese star shuttlers of different generations like Lin, Bao Chunlai, Sun Jun, Ji Xinpeng and Chen Long. He is married to former handball player Camilla Hoeg and has two children.
Q: How is it coming back to China now?
A: I came here for the first time about 16 years ago, and a lot of things have changed. I’m happy to be back in China. Since I don’t need to participate in tournaments, I came with a more open mind. I sometimes miss being part of the circuit. But it’s OK, as along as I can still keep fit and keep in practice. I still keep in touch with Lin, Bao and some old compatriots.
Q: What have you been doing?
A: At the moment, I’m working as a coach for youth between 13 and 17 years old in Denmark. I still keep practicing, which is good for my mind. And the next important thing for me is to try to set up a new business around China, Malaysia and Indonesia as an ambassador for Danish companies coming into these countries. I’ll try to use all my connections, the names and brands I’ve built in China to help the companies. This is an interesting project and I’ve been working on it during the past year.
There are many good values coming from Danish companies, like green energy and green environment. These elements will go well with how the Chinese people see me.
I can sense that a lot of Chinese people have already shown the world that they can set up a target, go for the target and become No. 1 in almost every area. But time has come at a certain point that China has to also look at other values. They have to do it in a right way, and hopefully I can be the kind of person to be an ambassador to build bridges between what Denmark stands for and what China stands for.
Q: What do you think about the development and changes in the sport of badminton during the past two decades?
A: I’ve played against Chinese players of different generations like Ji, Lin, Bao and Chen.
If you look at the games today, you have had the best men’s singles squad — Lin, Lee, myself — all complete players. Nowadays, you cannot be good only at one thing, you have to be complete. You need to be good in attack, defense, and mentally and physically tough. Lin Dan and Lee are high in all those aspects. The speed and diversity of the game has gone up. The demands today are high.
If you look at different generations of Chinese players, there has been a lot of difference since badminton got into the Olympics. Chinese badminton authorities have so many resources. Chinese players have the best setups, maybe of all. It’s very difficult to compete against them.
Q: Talk about the star shuttlers whom you played against.
A: Lin is the best player of all time. It’s not nice to play against him, because you are likely to lose most of the time. I like his mental approach toward the game. I enjoy the phenomenon among top players (that) we can fight with everything we’ve got on court, and afterwards, we shake hands and become friends. There has always been a mutual respect among the best players — Taufik Hidayat, Lee, Lin and me.
Q: What do you think is the future of global badminton sports?
A: In China, badminton is huge at the moment, because you have had a player like Lin for the past seven or eight years. The rest of the badminton world still needs to catch up to that level. And for Denmark, we needed new players to step forward after I stopped playing. We need players with personalities to win medals at world championships and super series games.
Generally, badminton is a great sport and has a lot of possibilities. But I have the fear that when Lin and Lee stop playing, we will need some very big personalities to come into the game. Lin is already not playing that often. Lee maybe has another one or two years. A lot of young players are coming forward from Japan, Thailand, India, Denmark and the sport needs them.
If you want the public to pay more attention to badminton, you need idols. I think the Badminton World Federation has been good in promoting the best players. Europe against Asia, that brings about a lot of good battles. We need some good names from Europe to come forward.
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