Chen long

Loh Kean Yew: Holding Denmark's national flag over his head, Viktor Axelsen celebrated his victory after retaining his Olympics men's singles title in the badminton competition at the Paris 2024 on Monday. Axelsen, the only non-Asian badminton medallist at the Games, defeated Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn 21-11, 21-11 in the final.

The No. 2 seed won all three group matches before seeing off Singapore's 10th seed Loh Kean Yew in the quarterfinal and India's Lakshya Sen to set up the final showdown against 23-year-old world champion Vitidsarn, reports Xinhua. "I felt a lot of pressure during the match," Vitidsarn admitted, attributing his errors to the challenge of facing Axelsen in the final.

After defeating his friend Loh, an emotional Axelsen shed tears in an interview and expressed satisfaction with his performance, calling it a "big game changer." "I'm very happy about the performance. I played very confidently, followed a good game plan, and executed everything I wanted to do. So I'm very happy and proud," he said.