Badminton men's singles top seed Lin Dan targeted his goal at the Beijing Olympics at the gold medal, noting here Wednesday that he would learn from his first-match blur in Athens.

Lin, nicknamed "Super Dan" for a series of wins at tournaments held by the World Badminton Federation in 2003, was downed by Ronald Susilo from Singapore out of shock in the second round at the Athens Olympics after he got a first-round bye.

"It is an experience for me, I think as an athlete, success is not the only goal. Defeats also act as experiences to improve my performance," said the world No.1 who will start his outing against Ng Wei from Chinese Hong Kong on August 11.

As the top seed at the tournament, Lin noticed that all top seeds in the men's singles were jinxed to win the gold at the Olympic Games, including Hendrawan from Indonesia in 2000, and himself in 2004, by the enormous pressure they were shouldering.

"Pressure can be both positive or detrimental to my game," he said. "But Olympic gold is the goal I'm pursuing in Beijing."

On the future of his career, Lin said he is not sure whether the impending Games would be his last.

"The period of the Olympic Games is four years, which is too long for a badminton player. It depends on my physical strength and overall abilities."

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2008)