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Badminton at the Olympics

travoholic | Sep 1, 2009 |

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Badminton first appeared at the Olympics in 1992 in Barcelona. Four events were held: men's and women's singles and men's and women's doubles. Mixed doubles was added at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics to bring the number of events up to five. Since 1992 badminton has be contested at every Summer Games with a total of 50 different countries participating.

Each Olympic committee can send a maximum of three players or pairs. The Badminton World Federation's ranking list is used to determine who qualifies for Olympic badminton with rules in place allowing players to participate who are the best in their country, even if they don't make the rankings list. Twenty-nine players compete in the singles events (for both men's and women's) and 19 athletes compete in the pairs competition. Badminton at the Olympics has consistently been dominated by players from Asian countries.

A badminton match is started with a coin toss, the winner choosing either to serve or receive or deciding on which side of the court they will play on first. The first serve of a game is made from the right-hand side diagonally across the court. Serves are delivered underhand and must be hit below the server's waist. The rally is lost when the player hits the shuttle out of bounds, if it touches the ceiling, if it touches the player or their clothing or if they are unable to hit it over the net.

The Olympic badminton competition is single-elimination. Rally scoring is used in Olympic play which means that players don't need to be serving in order to win a point. Games are played to 21 and a player/pair must either win by two points or be the first to 30 points. This has been changed since Athens when games went to 15 but players only won points on their serves. The match victory is awarded to the player/pair who wins two games out of three.

Badminton is fast-paced and exciting. It is growing in popularity and is already huge in Asian countries.