The last shuttle dropped, and Viktor Axelsen ran. He wrapped the Danish flag around his shoulders, circled the court, then handed his racket to a child in the crowd. Viktor Axelsen had just defended his Olympic title, beating Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn 21-11, 21-11 at La Chapelle Arena on 5 August 2024. With it, he became the first European to win back-to-back Olympic singles gold, and the most decorated man in Olympic singles history.
The final was settled early and never wavered. Vitidsarn was never up by more than one in either game, and only briefly. Axelsen built an eleven-point cushion in the first, then pushed to a 16-3 lead in the second. Across fifty-two minutes he stayed in control, the taller man dictating length, denying his opponent any way in. Vitidsarn was gracious in defeat. "Viktor was very good and it was difficult to play him," he told reporters after the match, adding that he had tried to make the Dane run, but that Axelsen was in control throughout.
The road through Paris
Axelsen reached the final without dropping a game across the tournament, seeing off India's Lakshya Sen in the semi-final. Vitidsarn arrived as reigning world champion, and his run made history of its own: the first Thai player to reach an Olympic badminton final, and the first to win a medal in the sport for his country. Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia took bronze. But the gold was settled with a plainness that spoke to the gap in form.
The victory placed Axelsen alongside Lin Dan as the only men to retain the Olympic singles title. It is the summit of a career that had already gathered most of the sport's honours. He won world gold in Glasgow in 2017, beating Lin Dan in the final. He took the All England Open in 2020, the first Dane to do so in twenty-one years. In Tokyo he claimed his first Olympic title against Chen Long, becoming the first European men's champion since 1996. A second world title followed in 2022, over the same Vitidsarn he would meet again in Paris. He has since completed the full set of BWF Super 1000 titles and spent 183 weeks at world No. 1, the third-longest reign the game has known.
What this one meant
For Axelsen, the second gold carried a weight the first had not. When he won in Tokyo, he said, he had not dared dream of a second. This time his wife and two daughters watched from the stands, and King Frederik X of Denmark sat among the crowd. He spoke of the pride of performing before his family and his king.
"But today I felt like the king of the court and it was an absolute pleasure."
He is thirty now, three Olympic medals to his name, and he keeps his own counsel on what comes next. Some players chase the record. Axelsen has quietly become it.
