Note: Some of the content in this article is compiled from Japanese media media materials
On August 19, 2016, it was enough for Japanese badminton to go down in history, and at the Rio de Janeiro Badminton Hall in the Land of the Americas, there was an exciting and exciting news that the Japanese badminton women's doubles group Matsutomo Takahashi Group (hereinafter referred to as Maki Cake) reversed the Danish combination in a desperate situation of 16:19, winning a gold medal for the Japanese delegation and the first Olympic gold medal in the history of Japanese badminton. The two people from high school to become a doubles team, to Rio gold this year has gone through nine years together, from the unknown to the Olympic champion, the story of these nine years of two people is worth telling in detail, and the Tokyo cycle after the end of Rio is once again set sail.
(1) From Miyagi to the world
Matsutomo and Takahashi graduated from St. Ural Junior High School in Miyari Prefecture, Japan, and went to Tohoku alone after Takahashi graduated from elementary school, Matsutomo left her hometown of Tokushima to go to Miyagi Prefecture after graduating from high school, and an important reason for her to go there was to follow in the footsteps of her predecessors. In Matsutomo's fifth grade and Takahashi's sixth grade, the coaches of both sides organized two players to play a singles match, and Takahashi won the game. And this game is the beginning of the acquaintance of two people. Since then, Matsutomo has often written letters to Takahashi, and the content of the letters is probably daily greetings, badminton technology discussions, life trivia, and so on. The older Takahashi went to Miyagi Prefecture to study and train after graduating from elementary school, and as a teenager, she showed extraordinary effort and persistence here, Takahashi once had a waist discomfort and her own skills were not enough to want to leave, but her father encouraged her to follow through since she went. Matsutomo stayed in his hometown after elementary school, hoping to win the National Junior High School Athletics Championship for Tokushima. During middle school, Matsutomo once came to China with the team to train with the national youth team, facing a strong opponent, Matsutomo never won to slowly adapt, slowly win, and constantly strive to improve. And this personality cultivated from an early age has had a huge impact on muffins in future competitive competitions.
Fast forward to the summer of 2007, when Matsutomo, a first-year member of Sacred High School, and Takahashi, a second-year high school, officially formed a doubles combination. The first challenge the two men faced was the 2008 College Mix, which was also the graduation year of senior Reika Takahashi.
2008 as an Olympic year, witnessed the rise of newcomers and the change of dynasty, that year's Beijing Olympic Games, guoyu won the men's and women's singles, women's doubles Olympic gold medal, and achieved the Olympic women's doubles event four consecutive championships, a dynasty officially kicked off. And the muffin group that broke the record of the women's doubles Olympic five consecutive olympic titles eight years later is still unknown at this time, and they don't know what kind of future awaits them.
In Japan, college students generally attach great importance to the results of the college comprehensive competition, which is divided into teams and individual events, and in 2008, the Japanese college comprehensive and muffin combination defeated the opponent and won the championship. The championship was not easy to come by, before the game, Takahashi sprained his ankle, but the two men still won the game with full tacit understanding and excellent skills. In the same year, Matsutomo, who played women's singles events because of the injury of her predecessor, won the women's singles championship and became a college player who won the group sports competition, women's doubles, and women's singles three championships. At the end of the year, the two reached the all-Japan Comprehensive Four, becoming the first group to enter the All-Japan Comprehensive Four as high school students. Perhaps today, the muffin group as a student has good results and talents in Japan, but if they look forward to the Olympic Games at that time, it is still too far away for them.
In 2010, Matsutomo graduated from high school and joined UNISYS, joining the same company as Takahashi, who graduated a year before her, when the UNISYS women's team was not considered the premier club in Japan, and the two of them helped the club to be promoted in the league's promotion and relegation tournament in their first year at U-Club. From Miyagi to Tokyo, their targets are even further afield. In 2011, Matsutomo gave up singles for the London Olympics points race and began to make a name for himself in international competitions with Takahashi. In fact, in 2009, Muffin had already won the Osaka Challenge, the first international championship of the two men. The road to competitive sports is not so easy to go, compared with the experienced predecessors, the two people in the Olympic points competition finally won the fourth place, the regret of not being able to participate in the Olympic Games made the two people firmly believe that they must participate in the Rio Olympic Games, it is this belief that makes them leave a strong mark in the history of badminton women's doubles events.
(ii) The road to Rio
In the autumn of 2012, in Andersen's hometown of Denmark, the muffin group defeated the ST Olympic champion Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei in the semi-finals to reach the final of the high-level competition for the first time, although in the final they lost to another group of national featherweight women's doubles, but the two had achieved their goal of hoping to play the final before the game. At the end of that year, in the all-Japan composite final, Fujii Rishi withdrew from the competition with injury, and Muffin successfully defended the all-Japan comprehensive. Because of the forced dismantling of the Fujigaki group, Muffin began to appear on the stage of history, and the most powerful opponents they faced were Kuniwa and the Korean team. In fact, before 2014, the two people performed mediocrely in international competitions, and some professional badminton commentaries could not be named by the names of the two people, and at that time, Japanese badminton did not have any outstanding results in international competitions. However, the foreshadowing is often buried in the least noticeable places, in the 2012 Chiba World Youth Championships, the Japanese team won the men's singles women's singles championship, and these two champions have also become the leaders of Japanese badminton in the future.
Speaking of muffins, their own efforts and fate allowed the two people to start building their own dynasty in 14 years, and successfully reached the top of the world at the end of 2014, that year, but 22/24 years old, it has been six years since they got the university team synthesis, there are two years before the Rio Olympic Games, and at the same end of this year, the two people won the year-end finals championship, becoming the first player in the Japanese badminton women's doubles event to win the championship.
Perhaps because it is too smooth sailing, or perhaps because the fate of the two people to test, since 2015, the performance of the two people has not improved significantly, but the team of national feathers and South Korea's winning rate is declining, although the development of new tactics, but the results are average, on the contrary, teammates, but in the continuous progress. At the Japan Open in September 2015, the eager to defend their title was withdrawn by Matsutomo, who sprained his right ankle in the first round, and the two men's way forward was overshadowed. After Matsutomo recovered from his injury, the two did not return to their usual strength, but fell into a kind of self-doubt, repeatedly defeated, and the results of the whole year of 15 years were mediocre. As the year before the Olympic year, every performance in this year may indicate the competitive state of your Olympic year. Obviously, the muffins at this time are not fully prepared. At the end of the year, Takahashi and the coaching staff and Matsutomo talked about their inner thoughts, and the two people who had been in tacit understanding since high school once again found the feeling of the game, and won the runner-up at the Fuzhou Open that year, and this runner-up seemed to win a little courage for Muffin to continue to move forward.
Fast forward to 2016, as the most gold-rich All England Open before the Olympic Games, at the beginning of the tournament, it gathered the attention of many media. That year's All England Open, Muffin won the Yu Yang / Tang Yuanwei combination in two rounds, engraving her name on the All England Trophy plate symbolizing the champion silver, and Yu Yang, who stood next to her, was not only the gold medalist in the 2008 Olympic Women's Doubles, but also the Yu Wang era created by her and Wang Xiaoli, which was also the goal that Muffin continued to pursue. At the end of April, Muffin won the Asian Championship and personally blocked his opponent/teammate Fuwan from the Olympics. In this "ruthlessness", it is the respect of the two people for the rules of competitive sports, and it is also the embodiment of the spirit of the two people's competition.
July and August in Japan is the rainy season, and the climate of high temperature and humidity pervades the summer. On the other side of the globe, on the American continent, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is a different story, where hospitable Brazilians are showing the world a sporting event full of samba culture, where new people will take to the stage of history.
In the early morning of August 19, 2016, the members of the UNISYS Club in Tokyo stood in front of the live channel, hoping to watch their teammates and realize their dreams and the dreams of this country.
The whole game was not easy, and the two men may have lost the first set in the tangled score because they were too nervous. The two men simply adjusted their form and quickly won the second set. In the third set, both sides had a lead, and after 16 points, muffin errors increased, the Danish combination won three points, the score came to 16:19, facing the pressure at this time, Muffin did not think much, chose to let go. After the game, Takahashi once said in an interview at 16:19 that he really thought of giving up, and it was the moment when Matsutomo got 17 points that suddenly inspired him, and it was from that time that he felt that there was still a chance. Calm handling of the ball, the tacit understanding cultivated in nine years of joint efforts, so that the muffins in the last few points are not alarmed, leveling, winning the match point, winning the championship... In the end, the two people one lay on the ground, the other jumped very high, perhaps they did not think that the dream of four years ago was realized, not so much four years, perhaps more from the moment they became athletes, the dream was realized. The two men stood on the podium, which symbolized the highest honor of the badminton women's doubles, with tears in their eyes. There is no better reward for the path they have traveled, the sweat and tears they have shed, than this gold medal.
Four years later, in 2020, Takahashi was still so proud and excited when he picked up his gold medal at home in an interview because of the epidemic, and talking about her interesting memories of Rio, she said that she met Bolt, took photos with her favorite volleyball player, and the creaking toilet of the Olympic Village. Many of the beauties have also endured because of this gold medal. Time will dilute failure and honor, and will also remember the good and the touched.
