How can An Se-young compete with Lin Dan?
There is a website called
badmintonranks.com
that evaluates the performance of all-time badminton players by converting world rankings into numerical values.
It doesn't seem to be the official BWF website, but it's quite well-organized and worth a look.
They have something called a "GOAT point" for each player.
BadmintonRanks - Professional Badminton Data Statisticsbadmintonranks.com
Here, Lin Dan has 1548 points (1st in Men's Singles).
BadmintonRanks - Professional Badminton Data Statisticsbadmintonranks.com
Here, An Se-young has 809 points (2nd in Women's Singles; 1st is Tai Tzu-ying with 831 points).
If she doubles what she has achieved so far (including 1 Olympic Gold and 2 Asian Games Golds),
she would exceed 1600 points.
Since an Asian Games victory adds 40 points,
she wouldn't even need to do it twice; just one more time would put her over 1540 points.
If An Se-young wins one more Olympic Gold and one more Asian Games Gold,
and continues her current performance on the Tour,
she will surpass 1548 points.
If she maintains her current pace as the undisputed #1 in Women's Singles, she could achieve this in about 6-7 years.
At that time, An Se-young would be 30-31 years old... wow.
Lin Dan retired at 37.
Unless a second "young An Se-young" suddenly emerges from somewhere to block the original An Se-young's path,
or unless An Se-young is forced into early retirement due to an unexpected injury,
competing with Lin Dan is entirely possible.
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