Source: REUTERS/Darren Staples
[Saba Sports News] Greysia Polii, the gold medalist of the women’s doubles badminton event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, recently revealed a little-known secret in her autobiography. Polii disclosed that on the eve of the women’s doubles final at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, they used surveillance cameras to observe the training sessions of the Chinese team’s Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yifan. In the last practice session before the match, the Chinese team initially arrived at venues No. 2 and 3, which happened to be adjacent to the No. 1 venue used by the Indonesian team. Concerned that the Indonesian team might easily observe their practice, the Chinese team made the decision to move to the fifth venue for training. However, this turned out to be a wrong choice. The Chinese team was unaware that cameras were covering every corner of Field 5, and these cameras were connected to monitors on the left side of Training Field 1, where the Indonesian team was practicing. On the monitor, they could see Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan engaging in targeted training under the guidance of three coaches. They were repeatedly instructed to practice high shots and long drives, with most shots aimed at the opponent’s left side or backhand. It was evident that the Chinese team’s training was specifically focused on exploiting the weaknesses of the Indonesian team. Polii began speculating on the strategies the Chinese team might employ in the final and formulated countermeasures in her mind. In the end, the Indonesian pair made targeted preparations and emerged victorious over the Chinese pair in the final.