Axelsen has struggled with it all his life: ‘I could not accept it’ | BT Badminton

One particular period tells very precisely what Viktor Axelsen has struggled with all his life.

He has just entered the hall, where he has for the first time become part of the national team. He is just 17 years old.

Here he will train with big stars like Peter Gade and Jan Ø. Jørgensen, who have always been idols for him.

He has also moved to Copenhagen. Alone. Away from the safe surroundings with the family in Odense. And so it suddenly hits him like a wall as he starts sending shuttlecocks over the net.

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“They were far better than me, and while I was moving away from home, starting to take everything hammering seriously and giving myself minimal leash where I weighed everything down to the smallest gram, I put too much pressure on myself,” remembers Axelsen before adding to BT:

»I was just a happy boy from Odense who came to Copenhagen. And when the results did not go my way, it was hard to be in. It filled up extremely much, and there were times when it got sour while I thought, ‘OK, now I do not bother this anymore’. “

11 years later, however, Viktor Axelsen has a CV that almost no other badminton player achieves in his career. On Friday, he won ‘the sport’s own prize’, BT Gold, for the third time.

It now gives the Danish world star the opportunity to look back on a career and a development which, according to him, has been almost illogical.

We therefore go back in time to the young teenage years, when Fynboen struggled with the predicate ‘great talent’.

“I was constantly told that I was a huge talent, and when I then came up to a level where it was no longer just for fun and I had to choose the school from, I had a hard time dealing with people’s opinions about me, “explains the 28-year-old Olympic gold medalist and continues:

“I’ve probably had a tendency to push myself further down than I needed to. I was not very good at shutting people’s opinions out, and that meant I started to be self-destructive. It made me insecure and frustrated, because I had a hard time seeing it all in a big perspective. “

As a mere 18-year-old, he entered the big stage and competed against the very best players in the prestigious Super Series tournaments.

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But here, too, the defeats hit him harder than he had imagined:

‘Every time I smoked out in the first round, I was tough on myself. The fear of failing filled a lot and I did not have that long perspective. I kept thinking in black and white that if I lost this and that tournament, it would ruin this and that for me. “

His self-confidence was also not improved by the fact that in the daily training he was often put in place in terms of play by his national team colleagues.

“Sometimes, when I played against Jan Ø. Jørgensen or Peter Gade, I could get the idea: ‘Shit, man – that level I have a hard time getting up to’. I felt there were so many things I had to constantly improve, and therefore I thought I had to work harder than others to achieve my goals, «says Viktor Axelsen.

For the young badminton player, however, it was not only the mental part of the tough elite world that challenged him.

The body of the Odensean took some colossal quantum leaps in his teens, which eventually became a problem.

“There were not very many players who had my height who had managed to make it to the top level. I constantly felt that my height was a hindrance for me to achieve my dreams. I spent a lot of energy and time wondering about that, “he says and elaborates:

“I have been way too hard on myself and not been able to accept the way I was built. And when I faced adversity as a young person, because of my body, I tried to compensate by getting as thin as possible, but it became much more devastating than a help. “

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The pressure made him insecure, and therefore it was also a shy Viktor Axelsen who tried to chase his big dream of becoming the best in the world.

Both on and off the field.

“I have struggled to become more outgoing because I am not a person with a particularly large circle of friends. I have few friends that I am really close to. “

The shy and reluctant Axelsen was also a boy who for many years walked through the schoolyard while thinking of only one thing:

“I was never the best in school. It went well when there was something that interested me, but I was never stable because I spent all my time on badminton and that was the only thing I had in mind. “

Part of the explanation is traced back to growing up in the quiet and safe surroundings on the residential road in Denmark’s third largest city. Just a stone’s throw from Odense Badminton Club, where he has spent countless hours.

“Obviously it has something to do with the environment I come from and the upbringing I have had. I have always been brought up with my legs firmly planted on the ground, and that is deep inside me, “explains Viktor Axelsen.

The shyness meant that he also did not shout up on the pitch when there was something he was unhappy with. The killer eye was missing.

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Right up until he won his first Super Series title in 2016. It became a turning point for the young star.

‘Here I thought for the first time:’ Aha, I can actually do well. I’m good enough. What can it not be? ‘,’ He asked himself.

From there he did not look back. And with World Cup gold, Olympic gold and season-final triumphs on his CV, he has now learned to see the bigger perspective for his career.

And therefore he sincerely wished he could tap the young Viktor Axelsen on the shoulder and give him one piece of good advice:

‘I should have been more vulnerable around what was hard and difficult. But I did not want to give my family or coaches that insecurity if I could not handle becoming a top athlete. I wish I had been. “