By Sportswriter Li Li

    BEIJING, Dec. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Twelve years after he ended his international career as an Olympic bronze medallist, Li Yongbo succeeded in steering the Chinese shuttlers to their eighth title in the world's premier sporting event this summer.

    The Chinese badminton team wrapped up three out of the five gold medals at the 2004 Athens Games. Four years ago in Sydney, they did even better and had four, also at Li's helm.

    The 42-year-old head coach has been enlightening all the Chinese Olympic champions although he failed to be one of them in his only chance in Barcelona, where badminton was first introduced into the Olympic competition agenda.

    "Maybe I have no talents to make it myself, but I apparently have the wits to inspire others," Li said.

    The multi-world champion announced his retirement after he pocketed the inaugural Olympic bronze medal for men's double with Tian Bingyi in 1992. A year later, he took over from Wang Wenjiao the reins of the national squad, which plunged into deep hot water after losing the Thomas trophy for three consecutive years.

    At the age of 33, Li steered the team to win the first big battle in the 1995 Sudriman Cup. The following year came the breakthrough as women's pair Ge Fei/Gu Jun clinched China's first-ever Olympic badminton title in Atlanta.

    People began to call him "young marshal", both for his leadership and dictatorship.

    There were whispers within doors that a batch of experienced coaches were forced to leave after he took charge, including former "badminton queen" Li Lingwei, who was introduced into the International Badminton Federation Hall of Fame in 1998. Yang Yangand Zhao Jianhua, the great players contemporary with Li, were unwilling to stay for coaching because they felt hard to co-work with him.

    "He only keeps people either willing to abide wantonly or afraid to confront his authority," a critic once commented.

    But the outspoken after-hours singer is popular enough to make ads on television. He even has products under his name and is one of the most agreeable interviewees with media.

    And, most of all, he downplayed all the opposition as he bravely did his job for pulling China from early 90's slump back into today's domination of its traditional domain.

    "In the entire squad, sometimes someone needs to be the bad guy. And obviously, I'm the one to play that role," Li said.

    He was also questioned when his side made a gloomy start in Athens. Pre-game favorite Lin Dan was ousted in his opening match of men's singles and all the men's pairs were stopped at the quarterfinals.

    His dissenters were particularly against him over his reprobation on his own disciples that "Lin is over-confident" and "they are not mentally strong enough to handle the pressure".

    "He is not man enough to take the responsibilities of the head coach," critics said.

    However, compliments finally prevailed over the newspaper as the team resurged to sweep the remaining three titles.

    "You can't be everyone's friend. I could only say and do what I think is right, and I certainly have the right to criticize my players," Li retarded afterwards.

    Strangely, the extremely stern disciplinarian took an easy line on love affairs inside the team, which is a sensitive issue and banned in most of the sports in China.

    He was straightforward to say "it's their own business to be in love" among heaped controversies in January when his counterpart Cai Zhenhua kicked out four paddlers for their romances with teammates, citing the reason "it affects training and impedes preparations for the coming Olympic Games".

    In contrast, Li is almost offering his helping hand and his championship squad has witnessed eight love stories so far.

    Former world champion Sun Jun and Ge Fei, double Olympic champions in Atlanta and Sydney, had been dating for years before the two retired in 2001 and got married in 2002. The relationship between top players Lin Dan and Xie Xingfang is now an open secret.

    "It's a normal thing and likely to happen since the players always train together. I think it's not bad as long as they can make balance between career and personal life. All I care is their performance on court. Sometimes they could do better when in love," Li said.

    He fell in love in his early 20s with his wife, a rhythmic gymnast then. They were also teammates in the Liaoning provincial team and the romance had a happy ending when they got married in 1991.

    The ex-footballer, who drives a BMW X5, is content with what he has achieved but not ready to call it quit. He said he never changed his goal to train 100 world champions, a mission he has completed 41%.

    "I'm getting old and people stopped calling me 'young marshal', but I'm not finished yet. I'm looking forward to the 2008 Beijing Games to harvest more honors on home turf," he said.

    "Maybe I'm not the best as a shuttler, but I hope to be remembered as one of the most successful Chinese coaches." Enditem