How it unfolded
Everything was different from the one-sided match in Beijing four years earlier. Lee Chong Wei took the first game 21-15 to pressure Lin Dan, who answered with a 21-10 second game to force a decider. The final game went point for point to the very end. At 19-18, Lee stood closer to Olympic gold than at any other point in his career. But Lin reeled off the last three points to close it out 21-19. It was the tightest of the pair's 40 career meetings. After the final point, Lin collapsed onto the court and Lee could not get up for some time. The win made Lin the first man to defend an Olympic men's singles title. Lee told reporters afterward only that he had given his best. The two met again in the 2013 World Championship final, with the same result.
Why it still matters
This is the match most often named the greatest ever played, and it summarizes the pair's entire 40-meeting rivalry in one contest. It set the first record for a defended Olympic singles title, and on the other side of the net confirmed sport's cruelty — that sustained dominance and the outcome of a single decisive moment can diverge. It also stamped the sport's dramatic potential onto world television.