Lin Dan
Lee Chong Wei
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Dead even across the measured categories. Our all-time ranking places Lin Dan at #1 and Lee Chong Wei at #2.
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The case for Lin Dan
Widely regarded as the greatest of all time, Lin Dan is the only man to hold all nine major titles at once, completing the so-called Super Grand Slam by 2011. Super Dan won consecutive Olympic golds in Beijing 2008 and London 2012 — the first man to defend the singles crown — and took five World Championships (2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) and six All England titles. His left-handed attacking game paired a thunderous jump smash with tactical patience and an unbreakable big-match temperament. The rivalry with Lee Chong Wei, 40 meetings with Lin winning the majority, defined an era; their 2012 Olympic final is routinely called the greatest match ever played. Fierce, charismatic and famously tattooed, he anchored six Thomas Cup-winning Chinese teams before retiring in 2020 after two decades at the very summit of the sport.
The case for Lee Chong Wei
Malaysia's greatest athlete spent a record 349 weeks as world No. 1, yet is defined by the medals he never won: three Olympic finals (2008, 2012, 2016) and four World Championship finals all ended in silver, three of them against Lin Dan. That framing undersells a staggering career of 69 titles, including a record 47 Super Series crowns and four All England titles (2010, 2011, 2014, 2017). His speed, court coverage and defensive retrieving were unmatched; he turned defence into attack from impossible positions and dominated week in, week out for over a decade. He returned from a 2015 doping ban and a 2018 nasal cancer diagnosis before retiring in 2019. A national hero who carried a badminton-obsessed country, he remains, statistically, the most consistent men's singles player of the modern age.