Source: EYEPRESS Images/F.L Wong
[Saba Sports News] In the second round of women’s singles at the 2024 Denmark Badminton Open, South Korea’s Olympic champion An Se-young faced Thailand’s world champion Ratchanok Intanon. Ultimately, An Se-young came back to win 2-1, maintaining her seven-match winning streak against Intanon. Fans were surprised when, during a timeout in the match, An Se-young completely ignored her coach Sung Ji-hyun, even turning her back to him while drinking water and not bothering to look at him, creating an awkward atmosphere between them. The cold and silent interaction between An Se-young and her coach was captured by live television broadcasts, leading some fans to speculate that Sung Ji-hyun is the alleged bully that An Se-young claimed to have faced within the team. During subsequent timeouts in the match, An Se-young continued to drink water alone, wipe sweat alone, and sit quietly by herself. Sung Ji-hyun appeared briefly for a few seconds before quickly leaving; her silence on the coaching bench was quite poignant. After winning the Paris Olympic Games, An Se-young revealed to the media that she had suffered bullying within the team and expressed dissatisfaction with the Korean Badminton Association. It seems that the conflict between An Se-young and the Korean Badminton Association has not been resolved, and she was forced to come to Denmark for the competition. In my opinion, although An Se-young has strong personal abilities, if she does not resolve her issues with the Korean Badminton Association soon, her badminton career may struggle to progress. If this stalemate continues, it will likely result in mutual harm.