Tokyo, Japan, June 23, 2021: Japanese badminton player Nozomi Okuhara has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity this summer – the chance to win Olympic gold in her home country.
After claiming bronze at Rio 2016, behind Spain’s Olympic champion Carolina Marin and India’s silver medallist PV Sindhu, Okuhara now hopes to move up two places on the podium in Tokyo.
Aged 26, Okuhara is the leading women's singles player from Japan and is among the favourites in Tokyo, even more so in the injury absence of Marin.
And she admits that her bronze medal in Rio will spur her on to achieve greater things this summer.
“I won the world championship the following year,” she told Olympics.com, referring to her world title in 2017.
“Considering the world championship is the biggest event on the calendar in a non-Olympic year, I should have been happy about it.
“But when I was on the podium as the Japanese flag went up, the national anthem blared – and the disappointment in Rio only grew bigger.
"I became convinced then that the only way to get rid of that feeling was to win in Tokyo. Tokyo has been on my mind the moment Rio ended. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about it."
Since the resumption of tournaments last autumn, Okuhara is two-for-two - winning the Denmark Open in October 2020 and the All-England Open in March.
Despite all these accolades, Okuhara admits: "The Olympics is in a different category for everyone, which is why I’ve come to appreciate the size and scope of it as a stage.
“It’s not easy to hit your peak for an event that takes place every four years. The ones who top the podium don’t get there on talent alone; it takes several things, like luck."
Source: https://olympics.com