Iris Wang Embarks on Fresh Journey
Most badminton players follow a certain trajectory, with the Olympics as the ultimate aim. If that ambition is fulfilled, it would be time to focus on career or academics.
· DEV SUKUMAR
USA’s Iris Wang was once on that path, too, and she assumed that, having played at the Rio Olympics, she would drift away from the game.
But she hadn’t accounted for how much she would miss badminton. Not only is she back competing, she’s embarked on a journey that she never did earlier – shifting base to Europe to train at Badminton Europe’s Centre of Excellence and play in the Danish league.
Wang was promoted to the main draw of the two Super 1000 events in the Asian Leg, her first international competition since the Barcelona Spain Masters in February 2020. The USA player, always a tenacious battler, proved that her stint in Denmark had done her a world of good, for she was impressive in Bangkok. She got the better of Line Kjaersfeldt at the YONEX Thailand Open and Kim Ga Eun at the TOYOTA Thailand Open, before falling to Mia Blichfeldt and Michelle Li respectively in well-contested matches.