Badminton coach Mathias Boe, who contributed to the success of the star Indian men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, announced his retirement from coaching after the Paris Olympics.
'Sat-Chi' as the popular Indian badminton duo is known crashed out of the men's doubles event following their defeat against Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Despite starting the knockout stage on a dominating note, Satwik and Chirag's hopes of returning to India with an Olympic medal were crushed. They lost 21-13, 14-21, 16-21.
Boe took to Instagram on Saturday and congratulated Satwiksairaj-Chirag.
"I know the feeling all too well myself. Pushing yourself to the limit everyday, to be in the best shape of your life, and then things does not go as you would have hoped for. I know you guys are gutted, I know how much you wanted to bring a medal back to India, but this time it was not meant to be."
"But you have everything to be proud of, how hard you have worked in this Olympics camp, battling injuries, even taken injections to reduce the pain, that is dedication, that is passion and that is a lot of Heart. You have won so much over the past years and you are going to win so much more in the future."
Later in his post, Boe said that his coaching days in the sport are over after having spent "too much time in a badminton hall".
"For me, my coaching days ends here, I'm not going to continue in India or anywhere else, for now at least. I have spend too much time in a badminton hall and it's also pretty stressful to be a coach, I'm a tired old man. I want to thank @media.iccsai, Garg Sir and Rakesh Sir, @bai_media, @gosportsvoices for the support over the years. Also a huge shout-out to all my colleagues in Indian Badminton. Thank you for a lot of good memories and I wish you all the best. Jai Hind," he added.
Satwik-Chirag have improved drastically under Mathias Boe:
Under Boe's coaching, Satwiksairaj-Chirag secured the Commonwealth Games gold and the Asian Games gold and also bagged a World Championships bronze medal too.
This year, the popular men's doubles pair won two Badminton World Federation (BWF) Tour titles, the French Open title in March 2024 and the Thailand Open 2024 in May 2024. They also finished as runners-up in the Malaysian Open and India Open.
They were also a part of the Indian team that played in the Thomas Cup 2024 as the defending champions. However, they could not defend the title as they lost to the eventual champions China by 3-1 in the quarterfinals.
