In Defense of Lee Chong Wei

The guy who broke 27 million hearts. Note the inconvenient protuberance. Don't tell me you never notice that. Bulls**t

I am feeling mightily depressed. I guess there are a lot of people out there who feel the same like me, both in Malaysia, and Singapore. 

Been feeling lousy ever since watching the Olympic gold medal match between Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan. 

It could have been so much better played out. He should have put up a better fight. 

I suppose there are a lot of enraged Malaysians ready to lash out at Lee CW now, having dashed the dream of a first Olympic gold medal, and derailed a much anticipated public holiday too. 

But i gotta put across my 2 cents in his defence. 

True, Lee Chong Wei was not playing his usual games. He simply could not. 

His face during the match was that of a cowered opponent, not his usual expressionless poker face. I guess it was only normal to be intimidated, after all he was playing a Chinese opponent in a Chinese gymnasium, filled with Chinese spectators that thundered out a deafening 'Lin Dan Jia You!' non stop for the entire match. The resulting din permitted little intrusion of cheer for him, as far as i could tell from the live telecast. 

Got this from either BBC or Official Olympics sportsmen profile. They could have easily given him a more complimenting picture.

He must have felt like he was battling an entire army, one billion strong, all by himself. 

The irony is he is a chinese too, but we humans are very fixated on artificial stuffs, such as borders of nations. 

But that's not all. 

He had to shoulder the unenviable monumental task of gaining the country's first ever Olympic gold medal, which unfortunately translates very well into risk disappointing 27 million people should he fail. 

I almost forgot he campaigned for Ling Hee Leong's bid to enter the parliament not so long ago. Tsk tsk tsk. Stick to sports la. 

It's plain sad that the nation has no realistic hope of winning any medals in other sports. In a sense, he was made to pay for the inadequacies of the country's sports development programme. The burden would not have been so heavy if he did not have to be treated as the sole beacon of hope, the sole torch bearer who could bring us glory.

So much for the millions we poured into developing sports (or trying to build some sports hall in London for dubious reasons.) 

All in all, the odds were completely against him. 

Yes he definitely could have played better, but the circumstances could have been a lot better too. Don't give the poor chap a hard time. He must be the most depressed person in the entire Malaysia now. 

Now if you would excuse me, i have my own depression from empathizing too much with that fellow Penangite to nurse now. Good nite. 

Oh ya, we got a silver medal, if you have forgotten about that somehow.