All England champion Viktor Axelsen and partner Natalia Koch Rohde are proud parents to baby Vega, whom they welcomed in October. Axelsen says the day his daughter was born is the best day of his life.
Axelsen: “The love for your child is something completely different and something, which is really hard to describe. So both me and Natalia are really, really happy and love our daughter to the stars and back.”
In an interview with the Olympic Channel, Axelsen said that being a father was something no one could prepare as there was no training and preparations involved unlike in badminton.
He said, “ When I go to court, I know that I’ve done a lot of training and lot of practice. But being a dad is a totally new skill, if you can call it that.”
“So you have to get better as you go, and I try to be good on myself, not to be too hard on myself when things don’t really go my way or the diaper isn’t put on right and stuff like that.
But it’s all a part of a long journey and I’m just happy to get the time to know the little one. I’m sure that I’ll be good at changing diapers and getting her to sleep at some point.”
Back to training.
Axelsen is back to light training after his ankle surgery. He had gone through a similar surgery before on his left foot and it was a success.
He said, “And now with not so many tournaments being played at this point, that was the right thing to do looking at 2021 where the Olympics are going to take place, hopefully.”
Natalia Koch Rohde.
Natalia Koch Rohde, a former Danish national player herself who played women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles, has taken a backseat in her career to let Axelsen achieve his dreams.
Axelsen is all praise for his partner and said she was his pillar of strength and support.
“It comes natural to us because Natalia, she knows what this is about, what the world of badminton is about. So she is an unbelievable good support. The good thing for me is that I can go to practice and I can do my stuff, which I have to do if I want to be at the top of the world.”
