Heading into the Paris Olympics, there are as many “I’ll be back” reaffirmations from badminton’s women’s singles icons as there are Arnold Schwarzenegger’s iterations of the three famous words, across famous movies.
Be it in returning to aggressively destruct, or in resolutely reappearing in defensively sturdier avatars, a phalanx of women’s singles warriors are turning on their Terminator modes in these last six months before the big Games fetch up.
PV Sindhu and Carolina Marin. Tai Tzu Ying and Intanon Ratchanok. Even Chen Yufei and He Bingjiao. Never forget the forever-fighters from hitherto badminton-agnostic North American countries, Beiwen Zhang and Michelle Li. Nozomi Okuhara and Akane Yamaguchi. They take the court with heavily taped strappings on their limbs. Iffy-feelings of bone cracks have resulted in precautionary mid-match withdrawals. Ligament tears have taken longer to heal naturally, surgeries and rehab kept them for prolonged months in the quiet, shadows of competitive spotlights. Recovery now takes forever.
For some reason, these conjecturing concerns are not the voices in the heads of this 10-strong army of Terminating-Arnies. The Korean wunder-kid An Se Young, 22, is everybody’s favourite for a gold at Paris and with the world title at Copenhagen, she sure can rampage through the field. But can she be sure she can drown out 10 different ‘I’ll be back’ pledges, who view career-finishing dead-end signages painted in deadly red, as walls to storm in instead?
Se Young’s will be an expected coronation, and a fine one it will be, for her overflowing talent and dedication; don’t miss the gorgeous geometry of her striding and footwork, while jubilating on the golden crown on the head. But the broken, bruised, bandaged, systematically scoped out and diligently dissected games of badminton’s Super 10 Terminators, might have a thing or two to say about this.
Clichéd psychology theories know nothing about a cornered, determined, ambitious competitor’s mind.
The odds are stacked against them taking gold. But we can’t measure the size of the heart for a fight in these reprogrammed T-800s. And you really don’t know your sport if you dismiss PV Sindhu, Carolina Marin and Tai Tzu Ying’s stubborn brains or Yamaguchi’s shrugging shroud of nonchalant precision as washed-up challengers, too jaded to win now.
Beiwen Zhang, 33, self-funded, coach-less American, scored an upset win over Carolina Marin in Round 1 of the French Open, kickstarting the March madness. She’s battled all her life, without the privileges of state backing, or a cheering team. She can run endlessly, and her re-fitted knees after ACL incidents, refuse to cave in. It’s the strong mind, silly.
Winner, South Korea’s An Se-young, second left, Spain’s Carolina Marin, left, who finished second, China’s Chen Yu Fei and Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi who finished in joint third, stand on the podium after the Women’s final singles match of the BWF World Championship, at the Royal Arena, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Carolina Marin of Spain reacts. (File)
Marin herself missed Tokyo, with a knee bend four months out from the 2021 Games. Her speed is visibly down, and she thrived on the explosive foot and hand speed at her peak. She’s slow and fading, they say, though that in Spanish translates to making finals at World Tour Finals, World Championships, Indonesia and Denmark Opens in 2023. She collected around 10,000 points in each of those 4 tournaments, and sits pretty at World No. 5, with a clear game plan: she will hunt big games at the Majors. Sure, she’s not won any of the finals – if that’s what one calls new vulnerability – but make no mistake, she’s hurting badly from the Tokyo miss, and the All-England will be an accurate pointer. It’s that indestructible brain again.
Sindhu’s struggles in getting titles are well-documented, though for someone who made every Major annual final from 2016 to 2019, casuals needlessly lower the targets for her, expecting her to plod chasing Super 500 and Super 750s on the circuit. The frontcourt right lunge needs sharpening, for the low retrieves. But under Prakash Padukone, she will deploy a smart attack of half smashes and drops, preserving her smash for rare kills. Most importantly, she’s liberated from a defensive mindset where conceding leads frightened her. The Indian will back herself to hunt down any lead now.
Chen Yufei has appeared to be the most brittle defending Olympic champion, not managing a World Championship gold in the last three years, and no Asian Games title either. Still, she has 5 World Tour titles, including beating Marin and Tzu Ying in finals since Tokyo. She’s openly spoken out about mental health struggles in managing high expectations. And you just can’t rule out the anointed Chinese at any Games – they turn up, for gold solely, with venue recces, shuttle aerodynamic science notes and hefty dossiers on top opponents. Battling her is battling China itself.
He Bingjiao’s game never relied entirely on pace or power that diminish with age, and mentally she’s sturdier now. She even beat Marin 22-20 the last time they met, an opponent who’s reduced her to tears in the past at the crunch.
Akane Yamaguchi collected a bunch of World Championships and then disappeared tending to painful knee and back issues. She’s taken her time to resurface, but having missed out on the Tokyo medal, she won’t let go of Paris easily. She doesn’t need intense ambition, youthful fearlessness or any emotional incentive to win gold. She’s rather chill that way. No one quite knows what ticks for her, though her anticipation and breadth of stroke-skills has only widened with age.
Tai Tzu Ying ended 2023 and started 2024 with monster final wins against Marin and Chen Yufei. The big 4 even made semis at Paris. The racquet sorceress is perhaps the most affected by diminishing powers after Sindhu, who can no longer rely, and shouldn’t either, on just power. Tai Tzu Ying has gotten read better over the years, her pace is fractionally down which exponentially affects her kind of deceptive deployments. But the pursuit of gold has gotten her to dig deep, and devise endless openings. They fear her still, even as they plot and menace to put her away. Everyone talks of her magic. But you’d be surprised at how good she’s at the straight-up, non-deceptive muggle skills needed to win: Very.
PV Sindhu and Carolina Marin might be playing in their last Olympics. (Express File) 
Winner, South Korea’s An Se-young, second left, Spain’s Carolina Marin, left, who finished second, China’s Chen Yu Fei and Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi who finished in joint third, stand on the podium after the Women’s final singles match of the BWF World Championship, at the Royal Arena, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Carolina Marin of Spain reacts. (File)
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