After many years, China's national badminton team has once again seen the emergence of a second-generation national player. On January 2nd, Sun Wenjun, the beloved child of world champions Sun Jun and Ge Fei, successfully advanced in the national team's qualifying tournament and was awarded a spot on the men's doubles team.
Badminton is one of China's traditional strong sports, with over a hundred world champions emerging. However, the number of children of these world champions who have made it into the national team is quite small. To the best of my memory, only Sun Junjie had previously accomplished this feat, about seventeen to eighteen years ago when he was a men's doubles player for the Chinese badminton team. It's worth noting that Sun Junjie's father is the renowned national badminton veteran Sun Zhi'an, who was the first world champion from Jiangsu province and won world championship honors in men's team and men's doubles events on the international stage.
Sun Wenjun was born in Nanjing in 2003 and began playing badminton under the influence of his parents during his childhood. He was successively selected for the youth teams of Nanjing City and Jiangsu Province before joining the Jiangsu team. In the autumn of 2021, Sun Wenjun represented the Jiangsu team at the 14th National Games, contributing to the team's third-place finish in the men's team event. Since September 2022, he has been participating in international competitions as a member of the national training squad, reaching the semi-finals several times in the past two years.
It is understood that a total of six men's doubles pairs participated in this national team qualifying tournament. The contestants determined their rankings through a single round-robin tournament. Sun Wenjun and his partner Zhu Yijun finished third with a record of three wins and two losses, successfully entering the national team. The top three pairs from the qualifying tournament, along with Liang Weikang/Wang Chang, He Jiting/Ren Xiangyu, and Chen Boyang/Liu Yi from the national team, formed the new lineup for the men's doubles of the Chinese national badminton team!
Compared to Sun Zhi'an, Sun Wenjun's parents may be even more famous. His father, Sun Jun, and mother, Ge Fei, were both top players in the world badminton scene back in their day.
Sun Jun was a top men's singles player in the mid-to-late 1990s, winning singles titles at the World Championships and World Cup. He also won the Sudirman Cup three times, especially in the 1995 edition where he and teammates like Ge Fei helped the national team turn things around. Currently, Sun Jun holds the position of coach for the men's singles group in the national team.
In contrast, Ge Fei's athletic career was even more brilliant. She won a total of 13 Olympic, World Championship, and World Cup titles, becoming the first women's doubles Grand Slam winner in the history of world badminton with her teammate Gu Jun. Ge Fei currently serves as the Vice Mayor of Nanjing's Sports Bureau.
At the 2001 National Games, Ge Fei and Sun Jun teamed up for mixed doubles, concluding their badminton careers with a championship victory, adding a legendary and romantic touch to their athletic journey.