Published on: Saturday, July 24, 2021 By: AFP Text Size: TOKYO: Banned from the Rio Games for gambling and almost forced to retire last year after a car crash — Japanese badminton star Kento Momota (pic) is finally ready for his Olympic debut. The world number one is among the host country’s brightest medal hopes at the Tokyo Games, but he will just be glad to compete after fracturing his eye socket in a January 2020 accident. Momota said his “spirit was almost broken” as he tried to recover from the crash — hours after he won the Malaysia Masters — which killed the driver of the vehicle taking him to Kuala Lumpur airport.