Olympics Badminton Duo Grace SU’s 122nd Anniv. with Display Match, Meet-n-Greet

Spiced up with various sport competitions and performances every year, the anniversary of Soochow University brought yet another sensational visit from Olympics gold medalists of men’s doubles badminton Chi-Lin Wang (王齊麟) and Yang Lee (李洋) this year. The duo played an exhibition match with SU badminton varsity and charmed the spectators in a meet-and-greet session afterwards in Waishuanghsi campus on March 26^th, 2022.

Welcomed by loud cheers from the crowd and music played by a brass quintet from the Department of Music, the badminton pair entered the gymnasium in a heroic manner, and gave a brief speech before the day’s highlight, the exhibition match, began.

Wang and Lee first demonstrated the basic but their best technique “drive shots” during the warm-up. They were then joined by Soochow’s badminton varsity members to play doubles, where Wang and Lee played against each other. The crowd got even more thrilled as both sides fought for scores and eventually ended in a tie with one game apiece.

After the display match, the two described the game to be purer compared to real competitions, allowing them to better experience the sheer joy of playing badminton. The Tokyo Olympics gold medalists also interacted with SU students by giving away 20 autographed shuttlecocks and taking all kinds of requests from the crowd. In one request, Wang and Lee even sang the “Happy Birthday” song to the camera.

Many of Wang’s family and relatives are Soochow alumni. His uncle Wei-Yung Wang (王偉勇) once worked for SU as a Professor of the Department of Chinese Literature, Dean of General Affairs, and Secretary General of the Secretariat. His father Wei-Chien Wang (王偉建) was formerly a military training instructor and is currently an Assistant Professor of the Department of Chinese Literature in SU as well.

Returning to the Soochow campus brought back many memories of his younger days of playing here, and made him feel like coming home, Chi-Lin Wang said. As a first-time comer, Lee felt truly impressed with the warm welcome from the Soochowers.

At the end of the event, the two sports heroes, along with Wang’s family, sat down to have a photo op with the varsity team as well as with SU faculty members. Wei-Yung Wang encouraged students to emulate the badminton duo, whose success lies in determination and perseverance; Wang and Lee advised SU students not to focus solely on school work but enjoy and explore other aspects of their college life.