Nearly five million Chinese Internet users on Monday posted their praise of badminton player Lin Dan after his historic defence of his Olympic gold in London.
Lin -- nicknamed "Super Dan" -- became the first men's singles player ever to win the Olympic title twice on Sunday, when he beat top seed and long-time rival Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia.
His win made the front pages of many Chinese newspapers, with the People's Daily calling him the "indisputable number one" of badminton, and was the most talked about topic on China's popular weibos, or microblogs, on Monday.
"Super Dan has outdone all the amazing players who have gone before. He's absolutely the best in the history of badminton," wrote one web user.
"I was so excited after watching Lin Dan's match last night that I swung my racket and nearly smashed the lamp," posted another.
Many also paid tribute to Lee, who spent 199 weeks as world number one, as he lost yet another major final to his career nemesis partly due to an ankle injury.
"A final between two world-class rivals... Lee Chong Wei is excellent. He could still perform so well despite the injury. We admire and respect him," said one.
Shortly after Lin's win, Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng won the men's doubles final 21-16, 21-15 against Denmark's Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen, clinching the fifth and last badminton title for China.
China's team had been rocked when women's doubles top seeds Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli were among eight players disqualified in a match-throwing scandal which prompted a public apology from their head coach, Li Yongbo.