And on their day in Paris, they showed their dominance.
Once more, they did not drop a single game in their path to the final. In the group stages, they won in 2–0 straight games against each of Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue; Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari; and Kim Won-ho and Jeong Na-eun.
That put them on course to face Chinese teammates Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping in the quarter-finals — Huang Dongping being one-half of the team which had beaten them in the Tokyo final three years prior.
But Zheng/Huang swept aside Feng/Huang, 21–16, 21–15, and then Japanese fourth seeds Watanabe Yuta and Higashino Arisa in the semis in another straight-games win.
The final would be a rematch from the group stages against Kim and Jeong of Republic of Korea.
And it was a one-sided affair as Zheng and Huang won 21–8, 21–11, to finally put to bed their demons from Tokyo.
“The moment when I stood on the podium… that very moment was when I finally felt that my dreams had come true,” Huang Yaqiong says in the film.
And it was a special day for her. Not only did she add to her Olympic medal collection, her boyfriend Liu Yuchen also proposed to her after the medal ceremony. She said yes.
“I can only describe it as happiness, because after silver in Tokyo there was some regret. It was regretful tears then and now it’s happy tears,” she says.
“In this arena, whether it was receiving our medal or me getting my engagement ring, for both of us it was taking a step forward.”
Huang Yaqiong retired from badminton in January, a month after Zheng did so too. In their last tournament together, they won the 2024 BWF World Tour Finals title.
Watch the Personal Best: Paris 2024 film now on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and on the Olympics mobile app.