Photos : Janusz Rudzinski (live) and Badmintonphoto (archives)

BZI: The majority of professional sportspersons dream of participating in the Olympic Games. Few of them get that chance. What does this event mean to you, especially as this will be your third time?

RM: Indeed, these are going to be my and Michal's third Olympic Games. For sure, our experience, gained in Sydney and then in Athens, where we did a lot better, will help. We defeated two Asian masters in the first round, and then we only lost to the gold medallists-to-be from Korea, who turned out a lot better than us. Back in Athens, we were really well-prepared and played completely different.

Now, it’s my third Olympics and, honestly, the appetite is huge, in particular after the last European Championships, where, after defeating the defending Olympic silver medallists and former world champions, I was the runner-up in mixed doubles with Nadia Kostiuczyk. We narrowly lost in the finals, so playing mixed doubles in the Olympics motivates me even more and I have to admit that I am anxiously waiting for it.

These are my third Olympic Games, so it’s about time that we proved something and it’s the best moment to finally win the long-awaited gold medal. We know the pressure the favourites are under, in particular the Chinese players. In addition, they are playing at home, so we are definitely not afraid of them. I have already defeated the world champions this year, both with Michal and with Nadia. I am not certain about mixed doubles, as these will be my and Nadia's first Olympic Games together. As a matter of fact, it will be her first time ever! Nevertheless, we have played mixed doubles on a quite even level this year. We have fought the best players as equals. European Championships doubtlessly oblige, too. Therefore, we will try to obtain good results also in mixed doubles.

BZI: What do you think about Asian players? Who, in your opinion, is a favourite for Beijing?

RM: It's hard to say. Four years ago the Koreans were dead certs for gold medals and so they won them. Their Korean friends, virtually unreachable for the rest of us, were silver medallists. This time, fortunately, there are no favourites. Certainly, we have to take the Chinese into account. They will be seeded first or second. Then, there are the current world champions – the Indonesians – Kido and Setiawan. I think that these two pairs will play the main role in Beijing, though these will be the first Olympic Games for the Indonesians, so I wouldn’t be afraid of them as much as before, despite their being at the top of the world list. The Chinese will definitely be dangerous as they have experience from the previous Olympics, they know the nerves of the event and they will play in front of their home crowd, which will impose additional requirements on them. For some it’s an asset, for others – additional burden.

Luckily for us, the level of players for Beijing is very even. I could now list about 7 or 8 pairs in doubles and mixed doubles, out of which any can win medals…Nadia and myself included. Many times, Michal and I have proven that we can beat reigning world champions. We will try to benefit from the fact that we are not considered favourites. We will try to put pressure on the Asians, who are already feeling it the most, and force them to make mistakes.

BZI: What European pairs should be reckoned with in Beijing?

RM: As for doubles, definitely the two Danish pairs. Eriksen and Lundgaard Hansen deserve particular admiration and respect as players. Eriksen will be 39 this year. His partner, Lundgaard – 36. These are Eriksen’s fourth Olympic Games, so they have quite an impressive amount of experience. Still, this year they have suffered a slump in form. I think I wouldn’t bet on them so much, yet the second Danish pair, in fact the first one today - Rasmussen/Paaske (who won the World Championships in Birmingham in 2003 and bronze medals at the Worlds two years ago) – can be dark horses of European doubles. And, of course, Michal and I are the third European pair. The qualification for Beijing was extremely hard. 13 pairs from the world list obtained qualification. 10 pairs are from Asia, two from Denmark, and then there is Michal and me. These 13 pairs are definitely the world leaders in badminton.

As for mixed doubles, the Chinese are at the top of the ranking, too, though these will be their first Olympic Games. Still, Gao Ling's experience will be most valuable as these are her third Olympics. She won the gold medal in mixed doubles in Sydney and Athens, though with a different partner. She will definitely not get nervous, she will certainly not let the Chinese down, but the partner – he’s a mystery. They will surely be strong. We wouldn’t like to play them in the first round as they are very tough and they will be playing at home, but if we were to play for a medal with them, I wouldn’t be so afraid of them. As for the rest, we also have 8 or 9 pairs, out of which any can win the medal. The Brits have two pairs, the Danes have one pair and there is also Nadia and me so there are four European pairs. The rest are Asians: the Indonesians have two good pairs, the Koreans have two pairs as well.  It is really a very even list, there are no definite favourites and, in my opinion, it is for the good of the discipline.

BZI: How did you react to the invitation of the Polish men’s doubles pair to Beijing?

RM: It wasn’t a great surprise for us. It had been said, unofficially, that there were problems in Hong Kong with the passport for one of the players. The Hong Kong Association told us, unofficially, that there was only a slight chance of obtaining that passport. Then we received official invitation we had, in fact, been anxiously waiting for.

BZI: Since you have already expected that, did the training routine take such a variant into account?

RM: We didn’t know it during the European Championships. Fortunately, we had 2-3 weeks to have a rest after the really painstaking and hard qualifications for Beijing this season. Then, when the training started, the list for the Olympic Games was announced, and Michal and I were the first reserve pair, but as early as after those two weeks we received unofficial notice that the chances of that said player getting a passport were practically nil, so despite not yet having qualified, we trained as if we had.  We just waited for official confirmation. Above all, due to the fact that we had a break after the last tournament, the training sessions were long, painstaking, and very hard. On Monday, we are fortunately leaving for training matches in England and then there will only be a few days before Beijing, so the time is running fast.

BZI : The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has assured players that there will be fair judging at the upcoming Olympics. Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei had suggested that line judges, the vast majority of whom are from China, will be in the favour of Chinese players. What is your opinion about it?

RM: Indeed, the line judges for the Olympics should be from all over the world. It should definitely not be like that there are 8 or 10 umpires and linespersons at the court, where 6 or 7 are Chinese. We have already had such a situation in Korea (in another sport), where the umpires and linespersons demonstrated how capable they were of hurting players by trying to call in favour of the local athletes, thus giving them Olympic medals. That’s probably what the players are afraid of. I hope, however, that such a situation does not take place; that there will be no problems of this kind. In fact, however, I am not in favour of the make-up of the existing group of umpires and line judges, as there are six times as many of them from China as from the rest of the world. [there will 10 international to 60 Chinese line judges – editor’s note]

BZI: Basing on your experience from the two previous Olympic Games, what are your expectations of the Olympics in Beijing? What do you expect in organisational terms? Are the Chinese able to surprise you with anything?

RM: For the last 10 to 15 years we have visited China like two or three times a year and we have seen a lot at the tournaments. There were problems with communication, with handling simple things. It turned out difficult, say, to get a phone number to the airport’s information service. As simple as it may seem, the lady who took care of our group was supposed to fix it, yet failed to obtain such information. That is just one example that comes to mind. Players from Europe who go to China, ourselves included, consider such situations to be amusing. Nevertheless, I hope that the Chinese will be able to grasp the whole problem, though, honestly, I am slightly worried about this. After all, it’s additional stress.

BZI: Recently, you seemed to have been plagued by injuries preventing you from participation in several important events. How are you now? Have you eliminated them?

RM: I strained my abdominal oblique muscle. It was quite a serious injury - unfortunate and rather stupid. While training, we practiced - quite unnecessarily - the so-called “wheelbarrows” and that's when I strained my muscle.  The next day, I worsened the injury while doing a jump. The occurrence was rather unfortunate as it took place literally a day before Nadia, Przemek Wacha and coach Kim and I left for training matches in Korea. I had an ultrasound and we had to call it off. A week later there was the Super Series tournament in Singapore, then a week in Indonesia and I had to ease up for exactly three weeks. In fact, I returned to training within 10 days, which is a very short period, yet I regained full fitness only after 3 weeks. Now, fortunately, there are no traces of the injury. For several weeks I’ve been training flat out, yet the above-mentioned mishap certainly hindered our preparations for the Olympics.

BZI: You, Nadia Kostiuczyk and Michal Logosz sought services of a coach from Asia. You claimed that you needed a new coach or else you would be unable to improve your skills. You yourself maintained that “the new coach is a positive move, yet moreso for the younger players. There is little time for preparation for the Olympics so it is impossible to introduce any thorough changes in our playing."
Do you still maintain your opinion that the coach from Asia is useful mainly for the younger players? If so, how did he contribute to improving their playing?

RM: In the long-term, coach Kim will mainly be valuable to the young players, even if simply in order to prepare them for the next Olympic Games. Indeed, there was too little time for us to completely change our training routine. In fact, since Coach Kim  (pictured below) has come, we had to play for the Olympic qualification, say, from the end of January to the end of April. He is a very good, international-level coach. We talked and it was he who suggested that we not change our training routine completely. We agreed that we would have several training sessions a week with him and that he would spend the rest of the time with singles players. It worked well, it brought results, and we started playing a bit better.

For the last three and a half years, with Klaudia Mayorova and her assistants coaching the Polish national team, we lacked respect for the coach and the belief that what we were doing was maintained on an international level. We were glad that the coach came from Korea as it is the home of the best badminton school in the world. Apart from that – authority. This is what we have missed so much for all these years.

I can now say that we deeply regret the fact that we were unable to get such a coach following the last Olympics. Now, I think that if we had, we would definitely not have had to worry about qualifying for Beijing. Just the opposite, we would have been strongly confident of winning medals and, above all, this year wouldn’t have been so busy. We would have been able to prepare for the Olympics themselves without sweating so much over qualifying for them.

Anyway, there is no room for speculation and it's not worth commenting on the situation of the last three years. The Korean coach definitely did contribute to our training routine, but, as I said before, he did not change it completely.  He rather modified things gradually. We trained with Coach Kim 3 to 4 times a week and, for the rest of the time, trained with other coaches. After a while, we started feeling better and now we just have to wait until the Olympics. Coach Kim maintains the international level. There is enormous difference between him and other coaches as far as the very training routine is concerned. Practice with a great number of shuttlecocks is an important element of it. And what Coach Kim does with shuttlecocks is unbelievable! He plays them incredibly and after training like this, we feel as if we have just played the hardest match on the highest, world level. As for training with other coaches, well... it is different.

BZI: Let’s go back to the beginning of your career. You started playing badminton only when you were 11. Why so late? What contributed to your becoming the leading Polish and world badminton player despite such a delay?

RM: Here, in badminton, the age of 10 to 11 is an appropriate age for a child to start playing, so I didn't start so late though I played football beforehand. By the age of 15, I was playing both sports simultaneously. Then I was called up by the Chinese coach Zhou Junling. He coached at the Olympic Games Training Centre – the first real Centre of this kind in Poland (Olsztyn). I demonstrated my strong points during my first tournament as a sub-junior. It was namely coach Zhou Junling who spotted several young players and invited them to Olsztyn and that was when my real adventure with badminton started. I moved to Olsztyn at the age of 15. I spent 2 years at the Olympic Games Training Centre. Later, we were lucky enough to be coached by the same Chinese coach hired by the sponsor of our Club - Polonez Warszawa. He spent 3 years with us. At the time, out of the 12 players on the national team, 10 were from Polonez Warszawa, so the whole national team was virtually in our club and we could all meet twice a day and be coached by Zhou. These 5 years of training with the coach from China was a great leap for me. Another Chinese coach came later on. He spent 2 years with us. I think that the 7 years with those two coaches resulted in my making it to the top. Today, I am the last player from the Centre in Olsztyn. A new generation has arrived. Initially, I played doubles with another partner, but then Michal Logosz and I decided that we wanted to play together. And it’s been like that to this day. These will be our third Olympics.

BZI: In that case, did badminton win over football because the Chinese coaches inspired you so much?

RM: It's hard to say. I was young. I think that the successes pushed me in that direction, made me keep playing. The Chinese coach noticed that and I decided to give it a try. I liked the hard training, then the first junior titles came, my first Polish junior champion titles. I must admit that there were several failures and crises, too. I remember the anger.  I would throw rackets and keep saying that I didn't care and wanted to go back home and play football, the more so as I could play for Legia Warszawa [an internationally-recognised Polish football club based in Warsaw – editor’s note]. My father was not delighted with the situation, as he preferred that I should play football, especially as he played it himself. Furthermore, badminton and football are incomparable in terms of popularity! Yet, I got to like this sport and from the time of going to Olsztyn I stopped merely playing it, but started serious training twice a day and it became work and that’s what it’s been to this day.

BZI: Speaking of throwing rackets, let’s go back to the surprising loss of the Polish pair in the European Championships in Herning, when the shuttlecock, instead of landing outside the court boundaries, landed on Michal’s shoulder, resulting in loss of concentration and the failure of the Polish men’s doubles pair. Internet fora are frequented by questions about maintaining concentration while playing and controlling one’s emotions.
What is the best way to overcome such problems? How can you forget about all of this, not letting the negative occurrence affect your playing?

RM: We definitely don’t throw rackets! I haven’t done that for a long time. Indeed, when I was young, such things happened after a lost match. Now, it’s impossible, especially at international tournaments. During the European championships, I managed to pull myself together. I had to pull myself together because I was to play mixed doubles with Nadia the very next day. In my case, the fact that I have the chance to demonstrate my skills in another match helps a lot. That’s why I didn’t break down.

For me, it was a great kick, a means of mobilisation, which contributed to our winning the silver medal. Indeed, after such a loss, it may be hard for some players to pull themselves together. For me it was helpful and gave me such a kick that I was able to be a double-runner-up.  It’s simple. It’s not worth breaking down.  You have to forget about it as fast as possible, grit your teeth and try doing what you can do best.

BZI: Badminton is not a very popular sport in our country. We can just imagine that it’s not going to be shown a lot on the television during the Olympics. What can be done to popularise this sport in Poland?

RM: It is hard for sports like badminton. This sport is not popular even in those countries whose players win the highest Olympic laurels. Unfortunately, football dominates everywhere. Volleyball and basketball are also frequently shown in Poland. At the same time, in Germany, Denmark and England, badminton is a very popular sport. The spectators fill the halls to capacity. They have several or a dozen or so leagues, so there is actually something we can do about it. However, with the lack of sponsors, it is impossible to show it on the television; and if you don’t show league matches or international championships on the television, how can a sport be popular?

Moving the Yonex Polish Open tournament to Warsaw after several years was a great success. We have been encouraging our Association’s activists to finally move the tournament to Warsaw or another big city for a long time. It turned out to be a great success! Many people came. As for the first time, we ourselves were surprised. The hall was virtually full on Saturday and Sunday, even though the tournament wasn’t particularly well-attended by top players. The Association’s activists told us that next year the tournament will probably get a higher rank, so it will be more attractive. Maybe the Asian contingents will be stronger and more numerous. We are moving forward, we are moving in the right direction.

BZI: According to the bibliographical note on the website of the Polish Badminton Association, you dream of starting your own business. Has your dream come true?

RM: I don’t think about it right now. I still feel fit enough to go to London. I haven’t yet decided whether I will start my own business or stay in badminton. I may become a coach. Definitely, when you’ve played badminton for so many years, it is not easy to end it all and leave it for good. I do not intend to end my career yet, and I think you can ask me this question again in a few years.

Badzine's coverage of the Olympics is brought to you by YONEX

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