Smashing success

Its record 14th mixed team title for sure deserves all the plaudits, but it's the maturing of a younger generation that has left China's badminton program feeling good entering the new Olympic cycle.

Despite losing its seeming invincibility in some individual events, the Chinese badminton team has again proved that its collective might, in both genders, remains beyond the reach of its rivals, as it celebrated winning its fourth straight Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, Fujian province, on Sunday.

The battle for the throne at the biennial world mixed team championship has turned out to be, arguably, the least unpredictable across all of sport's major tournaments after Team China collected a record-extending 14th title on home soil at the Cup Finals' 19th edition. Only two other nations, South Korea and Indonesia, have ever touched the trophy in the championship's 36-year history.

China's stranglehold on the mixed team title, secured by a 3-1 victory over South Korea at Xiamen's Phoenix Gymnasium, came down to the national program's consistency and depth, which the country's badminton chief Zhang Jun feels particularly proud of.

"I think this victory speaks volumes about the success of our talent development, especially the growth of our younger generation," Zhang, president of the Chinese Badminton Association, said at the tournament's closing news conference on Sunday.

"It shows that Chinese badminton has built quite a solid development system. We have young players emerging from the junior team, promoted into the national reserve team and then thriving in the senior team.

"We've established a complete multi-tier talent program, so, I think our future on the world stage looks quite good," said Zhang, a two-time Olympic mixed doubles champion alongside his partner Gao Ling (Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004).

In a rematch of the championship's 2023 final, the host squad leaned on its battle-tested blend of youth and experience to deny South Korea a fifth title, improving its head-to-head final record against its East Asian neighbor to 5-2 since the two nations' first meeting in 1997 in Glasgow.