Olympic badminton star Scott Evans to hang up his racket

Irish Olympic badminton star Scott Evans, who gained global attention for ripping his top off at the Rio Olympics, will retire from international competition next week, after the European Team Championships in Russia.

In 2008, Evans was the first Irish male badminton player to qualify for an Olympics Games (in Beijing), competing also in London 2012 and Rio 2016, where he finished ninth overall.

The 30-year-old Dubliner’s first major career highlight came in 2012, when he won the Irish Open. In 2016, he became the first Irishman to win a badminton match at the Olympics, beating German Marc Zwiebler and celebrating by tearing his shirt off and throwing it into the crowd. The shirt came off again when beating Ygor Coelho de Oliveira in the next round, before bowing out to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, who would win teh bronze medal.