FEATURE/Tai Tzu-ying: Ready for Paris, but can she defy age, injuries?

By Chao Yen-hsiang, CNA staff writer

In April 2023, Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) finally opened up about her future in the sport in which she had competed professionally since 2009.

"My plan is to retire after the end of next year's [2024] season. Even if I'm still able to compete, I would prefer not to," she said while attending a promotional event.

If true, the Paris Olympics will be her last stab at an Olympic gold medal, a prize some might think a player who has topped the rankings in women's singles for a record total of 214 weeks (between December 2016 and September 2022) should have won at some point in her career.

In fact, whether because of bad timing, bad luck, injuries, or inopportune defeats, Tai went without a podium finish at the two Olympics and multiple World Championships she played in until winning a silver medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

Since then she has also won a silver and bronze medal at the 2021 and 2022 World Championships, respectively, but now, having turned 30 in June, beset by a balky knee, and four months removed from her last truly competitive event, Tai has Taiwanese fans wondering how much she has left in the tank as she gears up for her first match on July 28 in Paris.

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Age catching up to her?

Tai seems to be wondering the same thing.

"It may seem like I've been OK in matches, but I can feel that physically and in terms of my training, things haven't been great," Tai said in an interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) released on July 16, recognizing the challenges of staying at the top as one ages in a sport as physically demanding as badminton.

"I think that if I wasn't able to win the gold medal in Tokyo, to win this time -- I'm not saying I have no chance in Paris, but it will definitely be tougher than before," she told the BWF.

She appeared to have gained new life at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, reaching the finals of the 2023 BWF World Tour Finals and then the Malaysia Open and India Open in January 2024.

That resurgence was referred to as Tai's "second coming" by the BWF's website, which noted that the last time she had reached three or more finals in a row dated back to 2021.

But even then her body was betraying her, as it did when she reached the semifinals of the All England Open in mid-March. She later dropped out of the BWF Thomas & Uber Cup Finals in May and withdrew from the Indonesia Open in early June.

In the event that Tai is relatively healthy in Paris, she still has to overcome a tough draw.

She faces Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the group stage, an opponent who has often given her fits in the past, including in Tokyo in 2021 when the Thai nearly ousted Tai in the quarterfinals.

If Tai survives the group stage, in which she will also have to defeat Lianne Tan of Belgium, she would likely face the dangerous Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia in the quarterfinals and then world No. 1 An Se Young of South Korea in the semifinals.

"Nothing is impossible, but I think it will be very difficult," Tai admitted in the BWF pre-Olympic video.

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As challenging a road as she faces, what is certain is that Tai is happy to be competing in Paris.

"The Olympics is an event that every athlete wants to be part of. I feel that it's not easy for me to participate for a fourth time," she said in the BWF interview. Her four Olympics will be the most any Taiwanese badminton athlete has played in.

"I have no idea if there will be any unexpected situations, but I will try my best for sure," she said.

Tai-One

If Tai is to call it a career as she has planned at the end of 2024, it will definitely mark the end of an era not just in badminton but in Taiwan's sports world.

No other Taiwanese athlete has matched her popularity since Tai first ascended to the top in 2016, and it is not even close.

As of July 16, Tai had 1.3 million followers on Instagram and 1.4 million on her Facebook page. The active athlete with the next biggest social media presence was judoka Yang Yung-wei (楊勇緯), whose Instagram account has 349,000 followers.

That popularity has since translated to multiple endorsement deals involving diverse brands and industries, such as fast food, airlines, food delivery services, and physical fitness equipment.

According to a report by Era News in July 2021, Tai is estimated to earn at least NT$25 million (US$765,955) a year from ads.

One for All

Some of her strong following may be due to her support for a country that has been continuously silenced in the world.

That was on display in 2017 when she chose to participate in the 29th Summer Universiade held in Taipei instead of the BWF World Championships, whose schedules overlapped.

"I want to let Taiwan be seen on the international stage. I think showing Taiwan to the world is a very beautiful thing," she said in an official video released by the Universiade.

"I gave up the World Championships and chose the Universiade because I think it's one of the few chances that Taiwan holds a sports event on this scale. I feel I had to stay here to support this event with other athletes, hopefully keeping golds in Taiwan."

'Trust in Yourself'

On Tai's left forearm is her third tattoo, showing four Chinese characters "相信自己" -- her father's motto, meaning to "trust in yourself" -- accompanied by a snake design, representing her father's Chinese zodiac.

"This [phrase] has accompanied me since childhood... I hope it will empower me whenever I raise my left arm for a shot in a match," she wrote in an Instagram post.

That phrase summarizes well how Tai has tried to fight her way back to the Paris Olympics by outdoing herself, especially by managing her errors on the court.

Her major rivals, including An and Carolina Marin of Spain, often scout their opponents by watching videos of their performances, but Tai said she is not a fan of it and prefers to just "focus on reducing my errors."

"When I lose, I know the aspects I didn't do well in. So if I watch a past video, all I can learn is that I need to bring down my errors. Knowing this will not help my game because it's still up to myself," Tai was quoted as saying in a BWF report.

So can she still find something inside her that will allow the former world No. 1 to reach new heights in Paris?

She proved that anything can happen when she snapped her six-match losing streak to the then 21-year-old An in the BWF World Tour Finals semifinals at the end of last year.

"It all depends on me," she said. Her fans from Taiwan and around the world will be watching with their fingers crossed.

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