Paris Olympics Exclusive: What happens when a player is under pressure – Badminton star reveals

Africa’s and Nigeria’s No. 1 badminton star player, Anuoluwapo Opeyori has revealed the joy of playing the game without pressure, www.totorinews.com reports.

Despite losing two games, thereby crashing out of the Badminton event of Paris 2024 Olympics, Opeyori impressed the stakeholders and fans of Badminton at Arena Porte de La Chapelle in Paris, France with his performance, which generated positive response and commendation for him and the leadership of Badminton in Nigeria.

He was particularly very dynamic in his second group game against China’s Li Shi Feng, a very hard fought contest, which ended in 2-0 ( 21 -17, 21-17) defeat of the Nigerian. Feng is rated 6th best in the world.

Speaking exclusively to www.totorinews.com in Paris, Opeyori said that he feels very proud of his performance, as he reckoned that the best thing is to continue playing competively without pressure.

“I feel very proud of competiting at the Olympics. The first game was not that good, but i was happy because i was able to first participate, feel the court and also give my best and the second game was much much better  which was even more interesting than the previous day experience,” Opeyori said.

He added, “I feel so achieved that i represented the country and I also feel very elated that I’m able to breach a gap between African players and World players too. 

“The gap is now showing that African badminton players are catching up and they are almost there. I am happy to breach that gap and very soon maybe i will  achieve the unbelievable feat very soon.

“I have learnt that we need to be consistent and be positive, and the most important thing is to have fun, while you are giving your best.

“You don’t put much pressure on yourself because that will make you do more errors while you’re trying to find the point just free your mind and enjoy the game and be consistent.