Event: Men’s badminton singles.
Who is he? Ireland’s greatest-ever badminton player, winner of eight straight national championships, and soon to be a three-time Olympian.
Where’s he from? Dundrum in Dublin — but he has been living and training in Copenhagen since the age of 17.
Olympic CV: Evans made his Olympic debut in Beijing eight years ago where he went to a third-game decider against Marc Zwiebler of Germany before losing 21-19. The luck of the draw went against him at London 2012 where he was handed the toughest possible test against top seed, world number one and defending Olympic champion Lin Dan. Lin won comfortably and went on to win a second gold medal.
Road to Rio: A few months after London, Evans claimed his first international title when he won the Irish Open in front of a home crowd in Baldoyle. As recently as June 2015, he was at a career-high ranking of 23rd in the world but a combination of injury and financial constraints (he gets a grant of just €12,000 from the Sport Ireland carding scheme) forced him to cut back his tournament schedule.
That led to a drop in rankings but he was still 61st in the world when the qualifying window closed and comfortably made the cut-off. He is 74th at the time of writing.
When does he start? Evans will have a few days to acclimatise before the first-round singles kick off on Thursday 11 August.
Where can I follow him? Get him on Twitter here @Scott_Evans1; on Facebook; or on Snapchat (scottevans_7).
What he says: “I’m good enough to be in the top 20 in the world.” (Irish Independent, April 2016)
Medal chances? The luck of the draw counts for a lot — as Evans learned four years ago — and if he gets a break, he has the experience and ability to pick up his first Olympic win at the third time of asking. The world’s best players are in a league of their own though so he scores two out of five on The42‘s scientifically-developed, patented Jerry Kiernan scale…
And here’s something you probably didn’t know… Evans teamed up with renowned Irish mentalist Keith Barry to work on his psychological game ahead of the London Olympics.
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