France, 'View' Kunlavut Vitidsarn, a badminton player for the Thai national team, lost to Viktor Axelsen, the defending champion from Denmark, 0-2 games, winning a silver medal in men's singles badminton at the 2024 Olympic Games. The badminton competition at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, last night in the men's singles final, "View" Kunlavut Vitidsarn, a Thai national badminton player, world number 8 and 1-time world champion, in a yellow shirt, entered the court to meet Viktor Axelsen, world number 2 from Denmark, the defending champion from the 2020 Olympic Games and 2-time world champion. Before entering the court, the pair had met 7 times, with View winning 1 time and losing 6 times. In the Olympic gold medal round, the first game was close, the scores were close before Axelsen used his spikes to score points while Kunlavut made his own mistakes and was down 13-5 and 18-7 before Axelsen closed the game out at 21-11 to lead 1-0. The second game was still close at the beginning but Axelsen st ill maintained his form well, leading 12-3 and then spiked to lead 16-3. After that, View could not speed up the game and it was Axelsen who intercepted all of View's balls. In the end, it was Axelsen who won again in the second game with a total score of 21-11. Axelsen won 2-0 games and won the Olympic gold medal for the second time in a row while View and Kunlavut won the silver medal, making it historic as they are the first Thai badminton athlete to win a medal from the Olympic Games. After the match, Kulwut admitted that he was inferior to Axelsen and congratulated Axelsen. He was excited and rushed himself today, which led to mistakes. Khunying Pathama Leeswadtrakul, a member of the International Olympic Committee and the president of the Badminton Association of Thailand, presented a special personal prize of 1.5 million baht to Kulwut to express appreciation for his achievement in creating a new history for the Thai badminton industry. In addition, Kulwut will receive a maximum prize of 7.2 million baht from the National Sports Development Fund if he chooses to pay in installments. In addition, Olympic medalists will also receive a salary from the National Olympic Committee of Thailand for 20 years at 10,000 baht per month for 20 years, or approximately 2.4 million baht, making the total prize money 11 million baht. Source: Thai News Agency