Since taking home the bronze medal in men's singles at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, Chen Long of China has demonstrated why winning gold seems more fitting at Rio 2016.

According to NBC Olympics, the 27-year-old native of Hubei held the rank of world No. 1 from December 2014 through June this year. Chen Long, who has already won 26 career titles, was succeeded by the Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, who recaptured the top spot just before the start of summer.

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In many ways, the Chinese elite badminton player is defined by two notable rivalries. The first is with his compatriot Lin Dan, who won two consecutive Olympic men's singles gold medals in 2008 in Beijing and then again in London in 2012, while the other one is the two-time Olympic silver medalist Lee Chong Wei, who lost to Lin at both the 2008 and 2012 quadrennial sporting event.

Lin, 32, is also a five-time World Championship winner and has a huge 62 individual badminton career titles under his belt. The native of Longyan, Fujian is considered by many to be the greatest singles player of all-time, having won all nine major titles in the badminton world.

Lee, who boasts an outstanding 64 singles career titles, dominated the world rankings from the years 2008 through 2013. The 33-year-old Malaysian top shuttler has won four tournament titles this year, including the Asia Championship, where he defeated Chen in the final round and the Indonesia Open.

According to the BWF, the Olympic-bound Chen currently has a win-loss record of 319-72 and has garnered 86,984 ranking points to end up in the second-highest spot in the current world rankings. Chen started playing badminton at the young age of eight.  In 2006, he became a national team member and made his international debut a year later.

With less than a month left, thrilling badminton matches awaits in Rio as three of the best players in the globe will compete for the golden glory.

Tagsbadminton news, bwf rankings, Chen Long, Lin Dan, Lee Chong Wei, 2016 Rio Olympics