Olympic badminton champion Zheng to retire from international competition

Beijing (China), Nov 29 Olympic mixed doubles badminton gold medallist Zheng Siwei of China announced on Friday that he will retire from international competition and next month's BWF World Tour Finals in Hangzhou will be his "last dance."

"Many people expect me to play at least until the Los Angeles Olympics or even longer. Considering our competitiveness, we just won the Olympic gold and ranked among the top in the world rankings. As for why I suddenly stopped playing, my answer is, this is my life plan," the 27-year-old wrote on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Zheng said that returning to the family is one of the important reasons for him to retire from international competition, reports Xinhua.

"My life pursuit focuses on both family and career. Everyone knows that I married relatively early, and now I've just had a second baby, so I want to return to the family."

After finishing runners-up at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, Zheng and his partner Huang Yaqiong won the gold medal in mixed doubles at the Paris Olympics earlier this year, finishing the tournament with a 6-0 record without dropping a set in the process.

"Along the way, we constantly made breakthroughs and broke records. We faced challenges and doubts, but we never stopped and we finally achieved the Grand Slam," wrote Zheng.

Zheng added that he chose the BWF World Tour Finals as his farewell event as the host city of Hangzhou is where his professional career began.

The season-ending BWF World Tour tournament will be held from December 11 to 15.