Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen retains men’s Olympic badminton title

PARIS – Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen retained his Olympic badminton title on Aug 5, demolishing Thailand’s world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the men’s singles final in Paris.

Backed by a vocal crowd of Danish fans at Porte de La Chapelle Arena, the world No. 2 battled past his eighth-ranked opponent 21-11, 21-11 in 52 minutes.

“To be honest I didn’t even know how I would like to celebrate when I won because I was so focused on winning,” said Axelsen, 30.

“I was so focused on being calm and playing the right shots.”

The Dane became the first man to retain his Olympic men’s singles title since Chinese legend Lin Dan, who won in 2008 and 2012.

Kunlavut’s silver was Thailand’s first-ever Olympic medal in badminton.

Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia took bronze after beating India’s Lakshya Sen 13-21, 21-16, 21-11.

In the women’s singles earlier in the day, South Korea’s An Se-young warned her best was still to come after winning gold to consolidate her status as the world’s top player.

World champion An, who has held the No. 1 ranking for the past year, beat China’s sixth seed He Bingjiao 21-13, 21-16 in the final.

The 22-year-old An is the dominant force in women’s badminton and won eight titles on the sport’s world tour in 2023.

She became South Korea’s first Olympic women’s singles champion since Bang Soo-hyun in 1996.

“My golden age isn’t here yet because I’m still young,” she said. “I will still have more experiences and I will be able to play even better.”

He, who lost the bronze-medal match at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, progressed to the final when her Spanish opponent Carolina Marin retired from their semi-final after collapsing with a knee injury.

The Chinese player stepped onto the medal podium holding a pin badge given to her by the Spanish badminton federation.

She said she was thinking of Marin and “hoping to carry her spirit into the final”.

“I feel sorry for her because she is an outstanding athlete,” said He, who was visibly upset after Marin’s withdrawal.

“I wanted her to watch me and I hope she recovers soon.”

The Spaniard’s pullout meant Indonesia’s Gregoria Tunjung won the bronze medal by default.

China topped the badminton medals table for a seventh straight Olympics, winning golds in the women’s and mixed doubles.

In gymnastics, United States superstar Simone Biles polished off a redemptive Paris Olympics campaign with a floor exercise silver on Aug 5, shrugging off a balance beam fall to finish runner-up to Brazilian Rebeca Andrade at Bercy Arena. Jordan Chiles of the US bagged bronze.

Biles went into the final day of competition with a chance to push her tally of Paris gold to a record-setting five in one Games.

She had already led the US to team gold, regained the all-around crown she first won as part of a four-gold haul in Rio in 2016 and soared to vault gold.

“Today has been absolutely wild,” Biles said, adding that she was “actually very happy, proud and even more excited that it’s over”.

“I’ve accomplished way more than my wildest dreams not just at this Olympics but in the sport,” added the 27-year-old, who owns a jaw-dropping 41 world and Olympic medals – 30 of them gold.

She came fifth in the balance beam, with Alice D’Amato becoming the first Italian woman gymnast to claim Olympic gold with a score of 14.366.

Teammate Manila Esposito (14.000) joined her on the podium in third, with China’s Zhou Yaqin (14.100) taking silver.

In the men’s competition, Shinnosuke Oka’s fairy-tale Games debut continued on Aug 5 with the Japanese adding horizontal bar gold to his team and all-around titles.

The 20-year-old, who also took parallel bars bronze earlier, registered the same 14.533 score as Colombia’s Angel Barajas, but took gold on the strength of his higher execution mark.

China’s Zhang Boheng and Chinese Taipei’s Tang Chia-hung shared bronze on 13.966.

China’s Zou Jingyuan retained the parallel bars title with a staggering 16.200 points, head and shoulders above Oka (15.300) and Ukraine’s Illia Kovtun, who won silver with 15.500.

“I’m super excited for this result, because coming to these Olympics, I had injuries,” said Zou. “I didn’t really practise that much. But I went through my routine over and over again in my head, so many times.

“I had pain in my body, but coming here and seeing all the crowd supporting us has helped me a lot. It made me feel better.”

At Chateauroux Shooting Centre, China’s Li Yuehong scored 32 points to win gold in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event, with South Korea’s Cho Yeong-jae (25) taking silver and China’s Wang Xinjie (23) the bronze. AFP, REUTERS