SINGAPORE: Badminton can do more to become a global sport by allowing tournaments to be played outside the sport’s traditional Asian bastions, two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a news conference ahead of this week’s Singapore Open, the Chinese superstar said the sport should be more popular than it already is.

“Badminton is an attractive sport that helps a lot of people, especially teenagers, both physically and mentally,” he said. “If you want more (people) to accept and enjoy the sport, competitions have to be played in different parts of the world rather than always in India, Singapore, Malaysia or China.

“Should competitions of a high standard be organised in new venues, I am very willing to take part.”

The 32-year-old added it was the job of the Badminton World Federation to promote the sport to a wider international audience.

Nicknamed “Super Dan” in 2004, by now-retired Danish star Peter Gade, the Chinese shuttler remains the only singles player to have scooped all nine major badminton titles on top of two Olympic golds.

While the pressure may be on Lin to add a third gold at the Rio Olympics in August, he said his focus would simply be to perform at his best.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2016