The Chronicle of Badminton

the history so far...                                              

Before I move start, this is the website which contains some interesting history on Malaysian badminton. Have a look : http://www.viweb.freehosting.net/badminton.htm

        It is amazing to see that a shuttlecock which is made from sticking goose feathers into a piece of cock can travel up to 200 mph. Badminton demands a lot from a player where a shuttler has to possess a skillful reflexes to keep the shuttle playing all the time. Did you know that professional players have known to cover up to four miles in a single match in order to encounter the unpredictable shuttle?

            This game was invented long ago, approximately 2000 years ago. It was then played in ancient Greek, India and China by children, whom they refer this game as battledore and shuttlecock. Every player tried to keep the shuttlecock in the air as long as possible. In 1860, a net was added into this simple game by the British army officers when they were playing in India and that made this sport being called “Poona”. In the early 1870s, they brought the equipments back to England and introduced it there.

            It was first played at the lawn party held by Duke the Beaufort at his country place, “Badminton” in Gloucestershire. As a result, this game was known as Badminton by the guests who played the game, who then introduced it to other people.

v     1877   The rules which we are being followed today were written by the Bath     

                 Badminton Club

v     1893   The Badminton Association of England was established. It was the first

                 national guarding body

v     1899   Men’s unofficial All England Championship was held for the first time

v     1878   Badminton Club of New York (only a social club)

v     1900   The All England Championship was opened to women as well (still remained

                 unofficial)

v     1904   The All England Championship became official

v     1908   Badminton Health Club of Boston was established. The number of members

                 increased to 300 by 1925

v     1935   American Badminton Association (ABA) was established and the first national 

                 championship was held on the 1^st of April 1937.

v     1934   The International Badminton Federation (IBF) was found at the Gloucestershire with 9

                 members Canada, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand,

                 Scotland and Wales by an Englishman, Sir George Thomas. He was the first president

                 of IBF. He donated the Thomas Cup which will be the challenge trophy for the Thomas  

                 Cup event, held every two years.

v     1939   There was a plan to hold the first World Championship but was cancelled.

v     1949   The first Thomas Cup was held.

Since there was the Thomas Cup event for the men, then came an idea about a trophy for the women’s event. Mrs. H. S. Uber donated the trophy and the Uber Cup event was held every two years for the women. The first tournament was during the 56-57 edition.

v     1972   Badminton was a demonstration sport at the Olympic and it made it into the Olympic games in 1992

WINNERS OF THE THOMAS CUP

WINNERS OF UBER CUP

OLYMPIC GAMES (Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000)

GOLD MEDALLISTS

1992

Men’s Singles                Alan Budi Kusuma                                 (Indonesia)

Women’s Singles           Susi Susanti                                            (Indonesia)

Men’s Doubles               Park Joo-bong-Kim Moon-soo             (Korea)

Women’s  Doubles         Hwang Hye-young-Chung So-young      (Korea)

1996

Men’s Singles                 Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen                         (Denmark)

Women’s Singles            Bang Soo-hyun                                      (Korea)

Men’s Doubles                Ricky Subagia-Rexy Mainaky                (Indonesia)

Women’s Doubles          Ge Fei-Gu Yun                                       (China)

Mixed Doubles               Kim Dong-moon-Gil Young-ah               (Korea)

2000

Men’s Singles                 Ji Xinpeng                                              (China)

Women’s Singles           Gong Zhichao                                         (China)

Men’s Doubles              Candra Wijaya-Sigit Budiarto                 (Indonesia)

Women’s Doubles         Ge Fei-Gu Jun                                        (China)

Mixed Doubles               Zhang Jun-Gao Ling                              (China)

2004

Men’s Singles                Taufik Hidayat                                        (China)

Women’s Singles           Zhang Ning                                             (China)

Men’s Doubles              Ha Tae Kwon - Kim Dong Moon           (Indonesia)

Women’s Doubles         Yang Wei - Zhang Jiewen                       (China)

Mixed Doubles               Zhang Jun-Gao Ling                              (China)