Yesterday night, Malaysia came together as one to cheer our national hero on as he put out his best for the London Olympic Games 2012 men’s singles badminton’s finals. In a grueling to and fro, the match ended 21-15, 10-21-, 19-21. Our Dato Lee Chong Wei fell to his knees as his longtime badminton nemesis and opponent, China’s Lin Dan ran victoriously.
It was heartbreaking to see our national hero quietly wipe away his tears during the prize giving ceremony afterwards. To see our national hero looking defeated broke the hearts of Malaysians who rallied and cheered and supported him from the very beginning, not just during the 79-minute match.
Much more so when Chong Wei tweeted after his match:
To put it into perspective, this was probably one of his toughest challenges ever, having just recovered from torn right ankle ligaments in May this year during the Thomas Cup Finals. At that time, his advisers cast serious doubts over his ability to recover and train in time for the Olmypics.
It was also during that difficult period that the 29-year-old lamented to The New Straits Times (Malaysia), “It has been a long and lonely road for me since I suffered that injury. To be honest, it dawned on me during those times who were my real friends, who actually cared for me, Chong Wei, the ordinary person.” (Source)
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But with the help of stem cell treatment and 13 hours’ rehab each day, he managed to pull through. He was determined to go for gold.
He proved his point last night when he played his best, despite everything that he had to go through in the past few months. Dato Lee Chong Wei showed the world what a true hero is, uniting Malaysians regardless of race, age, and gender in ways impossible. Thank you, Dato, for playing your best and getting Malaysia another Olympics silver.
We don’t need a gold – you are our gold.
To send messages to Dato Lee Chong Wei, tweet him via his Twitter account.
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