In the first two World Championships, he made it to the quarterfinals and semifinals, and was one of the best male singles players in the Chinese badminton competition. As soon as the World Championships opened, he stopped in the first round of men's singles and was the only national player to miss the second round. The stark contrast in the performance of this national player in the past three World Championships is astonishing. In the first round of men's singles at the Badminton World Championships held in the early morning of August 22nd Beijing time, Zhao Junpeng lost 0-2 to Malaysian player Huang Zhiyong, becoming the only loser among the four men's singles participating countries. Various signs indicate that Zhao Junpeng is gradually distancing himself from the Paris Olympics.

At present, there is still 2/3 of the badminton points competition schedule for the Paris Olympics that has not yet taken place. I am not optimistic about Zhao Junpeng's Olympic prospects, not only because of his poor performance at this year's World Championships, but also because of the recent trend of Olympic points. At present, the vast majority of athletes hold Olympic points for six, seven, or even eight or nine races. Zhao Junpeng, who competed in this year's World Championships as his fourth Olympic point race, was eliminated early in this week's World Championships, which had the highest weight in Olympic points. This result is like adding insult to injury.

At the Paris Olympics, each men's singles team can only send a maximum of 2 players to compete. Currently, Li Shifeng, Weng Hongyang, Shi Yuqi, and Lu Guangzu have Olympic points of 45808 points (already participated in 8 stations), 37210 points (already participated in 8 stations), 32824 points (already participated in 6 stations), and 22280 points (already participated in 6 stations), respectively. The top 3 players are currently ranked 3rd, 10th, and 14th on the Olympic points table. Even if Zhao Junpeng's World Championships points are included, his Olympic points will just exceed 100 million next week. It is obvious that under normal circumstances, the two Olympic candidates who belong to the national badminton men's singles will be selected from among Li Wengshi's three.

After the end of this year's World Championships, there are still 8 months left in the Paris Olympic points race, and just looking at the length of time, Zhao Junpeng seems to have a lot of opportunities, but in fact, it may not be possible.

This Sunday, the world championship with the highest score in the Olympic points tournament will come to a close. The four stop Super 1000 race during the Paris Olympic points tournament has ended the Indonesian Open, and the Super 750 races in Japan, Singapore, and other countries have also been held. Considering that Zhao Junpeng's points this season are not enough to make it to the end of year Super Cup finals, this means that he will lose another chance to compete for high points in the final held at the end of the year.

The South Korean Open, which started a month ago, was Zhao Junpeng's first stop in the Paris Olympics points race. At that time, the points race had already begun for more than two months, and athletes with more points races had already participated in five or six races. In the past two years, Zhao Junpeng has been the biggest highlight of the Chinese badminton men's singles. In the 2021 World Championships, he was the only national player to reach the quarterfinals of the men's singles. In the 2022 World Championships, he made great efforts to reach the semifinals, and these two achievements earned some face for the Chinese badminton men's singles, which had fallen to a historic low at the time. Former hero, why did the trip to the Olympic points race come so late?