GEORGE TOWN, Dec 11 — When he first started playing badminton at age seven, Chan Peng Soon never imagined that one day he would be an Olympic medallist.
He and his mixed doubles partner, Goh Liu Ying, won silver at the Rio Olympics this year, an achievement that was beyond his wildest dreams.
The 28-year-old, together with Goh, has bagged nine titles and six runner-ups in various championships since 2009.
It was in Rio de Janeiro, however, that the duo won a silver medal in the mixed doubles match, the first ever for Malaysia.
This is a far cry from their 2012 Olympics outing, their first, where they lost right in the beginning.
Here, Chan, talks about how he started playing badminton and what his next goals are.
In his own words:
I followed my father to play badminton with his friends. I only started training seriously at 12… my schoolmate wanted to start training with the badminton coach Ong Ewe Chye and he asked me to join him.
At 12 years old, I represented the state once but I did not join any other competitions until I was 15. By the age of 14, I knew I wanted to be a professional badminton player. I wanted to pursue it seriously. Fortunately, my parents saw that I had the talent and interest for this sport so they supported me to continue with it. In school, I played a lot of sports. I played table tennis, basketball and joined track. I chose badminton because my father said it has a future. When I first trained professionally, my father told me to get into the national team otherwise I have to stop. So, I worked really hard and got into the national team at 18.
It was hard for me to balance my badminton training with my studies so I only completed my Form Three before I stopped school and concentrated fully on badminton. This is because in the afternoons, I have training and the evenings, I have more sessions that last till very late at night. So, each morning I will be too tired and couldn’t concentrate. That’s why I had to drop out, I couldn’t juggle between training and school.
When I first trained with Ong Ewe Chye, it was not easy. I didn’t have transport to go to the training sessions as my mother couldn’t drive and my father was working outstation. I still have a younger brother and sister. I often had to ask my friends’ parents to take me to the training sessions. I didn’t want to join the training initially because of this transport problem but my schoolmate insisted that I go with him. Now, I am glad that he pulled me along.
When I joined the national team at 18, I didn’t have the Olympic dream yet. I didn’t even dare think about it. At that time, my goals were only to improve my game, to be good, to build up my results. But in 2008, when we saw Lee Chong Wei go into the finals, we started to have this goal too.
I started playing in the men’s doubles first at 15 when representing the state. It was in later years that I switched to mixed doubles. My badminton idols at that time were Hendra Setiawan and Kim Dong-Moon (before he retired). I still look up to Hendra Setiawan now. I started teaming up with Goh Liu Ying at 19 until two years ago, I partnered with another player because she went for surgery. I teamed up with Goh again later.
During the Olympics, we could barely sleep throughout the whole three weeks there. The pressure was really great. Every night I will keep thinking of the upcoming match. When we got into the finals, everyone tells us to relax and enjoy it because it already surpassed our target of getting a bronze. So, I tried to relax and go into the game with a calm mind. But when we enter the court, the whole situation is different. I can see the audience and the expectations they have on us to win gold for the country. The pressure was high and that is why my game was not as good as it’s supposed to be. I went in with a relaxed mind and ended up getting too pressured to win in the court. It was different during the semi-finals because we were already mentally prepared to fight for the silver. We knew we didn’t want to lose it and go for another match to win the bronze. So we gave it our all to fight for it. Our first Olympics was in 2012 in London. We were disqualified right in the beginning. Maybe at that time, we were very nervous and first timers, maybe we couldn’t take the pressure. This time around, we are more experienced, we knew what it’s like and we have four years to train for it. That’s the difference.
Even though I’m a silver medallist now, I think studies are also important. I feel that we still need a good education background, like now my English is not so good. I can speak it a bit but not as good especially when overseas. My target now is to perform well in the world championships next year. Now we are ranked number eight in the world. Our target next year is to get into top five.
Our training sessions are three hours in the morning. After that, it’s some stretching. Then afternoon another three-hour session. We rest after 5pm and sleep early at night. It’s like a daily job. My advice to others is to try and reach for their dreams and not give up. You must give it your all and try your best. If you don’t even try and you quit, you will never be able to know your full potential.
Two years ago, I thought I had reached my limit and wanted to give up. I wanted to become a coach. But then I stopped myself. I asked myself if I had given the sport my all. I realised I have not pushed myself to the maximum. I feel that I can still push myself further. After pushing myself for a year, to train for the Olympics this year, I managed to achieve such good results. So, now, I am confident that I can push myself further for even better success. I am sure I can be better and improve my skills more.
