Chinese shuttler Chen Long arrived at the Tokyo Olympics with hopes of defending his Rio 2016 gold medal, but those dreams were dashed when he lost to Denmark's Viktor Axelsen in the badminton singles final on August 2.

Chen Long, 32, was defeated 15-21, 12-21 by the world No. 2, who became the first non-Asian man to win the singles title since 1996.

Though sixth seed Chen Long is ranked lower than Viktor, he has an advantage given his history of 14 wins and five losses against the Dane.

If Chen Long had won, he would become the second Chinese man in a row to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the sport. Lin Dan won gold at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Games.

Chinese netizens did not take the defeat well.

After the match, they flocked online to criticise, not Viktor, but Chen Long. And we all know how vocal these Chinese trolls can be.

Calling Chen Long “useless” and a “disgrace”, they likened the match to an “adult beating a kid , where there was no way of [Chen Long] fighting back”.

There were also hurtful comments like Hurry up and move aside. Don’t hold up the development of Chinese badminton”.

Yesterday (Aug 3), Chen Long took to Weibo to apologise for his defeat.

I am very sorry that I failed to defend the men's singles title at the Tokyo Olympics, but I can't achieve this without your support and cheers…. The Olympic spirit and the Chinese spirit of constantly striving for self-improvement have always been the source of my motivation… I am grateful to the motherland for grooming me. Finally, I sincerely wish the Chinese badminton team will achieve more and greater achievements, he wrote.

As it turns out, Chen Long’s less-than-ideal performance was due to an injury.

Zhang Jun, the head coach of the Chinese Badminton Association, revealed that Chen Long had developed a blister on the ball of his foot during the group stage of the competition.

It turned into a blood blister and it was so bad that “he couldn’t run”.

“Chen Long had two big blisters on the sole of his foot which affected his movements. But he didn’t give up and fought hard for every point,” said Zhang Jun, adding that he was touched by Chen Long’s fighting spirit.

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Photos: Chen Long/Weibo