Sport that inspires me

HISTORY
The origins of the game of badminton date back at least 2,000
years to the game of battledore and shuttlecock played in ancient
Greece, China, and India.

A very long history for one of the Olympics newest sports!

Badminton took its name from Badminton House in
Gloucestershire, the ancestral home of the Duke of Beaufort,
where the sport was played in the last century. Gloucestershire is
now the base for the International Badminton Federation.

The IBF was formed in 1934 with nine members: Canada,

Denmark, France, Netherlands, England, New Zealand, Ireland,
Scotland, and Wales. The United States joined four years later.
Membership increased steadily over the next few years with a
surge in new members after the Olympic Games debut at
Barcelona.

The first big IBF tournament was the Thomas Cup (men’s world
team championships) in 1948. Since then, the number of world
events has increased to seven, with the addition of the Uber Cup
(ladies’ team), World Championships, Sudirman Cup (mixed
team), World Juniors, World Grand Prix Finals, and the World
Cup.

The World Cup invitational event started in 1981 and is organized

by the International Management Group (IMG). The World Cup
series is due to end in 1997, and the IBF is considering organizing
exhibition matches featuring the world’s top players to replace the
World Cup.
For the recent Thomas and Uber Cups in Hong Kong, the sale of
commercial and television rights was a multimillion dollar contract.
And it’s not just in Asia. In Europe also, there’s a growing number
of companies bidding for rights. Television companies worldwide
are already buying exclusive rights to the 1997 World
Championships to be held in Glasgow, Scotland.

A turning point in badminton’s growth was the $20 million tripartite

contract in 1994 for sponsorship of the World Grand Prix Finals.
Under the terms of the deal between the IBF, IMG, and STAR TV,
STAR injects the monies into the promotion and development of
badminton. In return, STAR gains total exclusivity for the
exploitation of the commercial and television rights to the WGP
Finals. “The deal was good for both main parties,” said David
Shaw, IBF’s executive director, who was brought into the
organization with a brief to grow the sport. “We needed a strong
partner in television, and the broadcaster had identified
badminton as a vehicle which would attract audiences across
Asia to its prime sports channel.”

The next phase in the rise and rise of international badminton has
been to retake the USA. The U.S. was an early member of the
IBF and initially one of the most successful. When the Uber Cup
was introduced in 1956, Americans won the first three events. But
then interest waned.

Badminton is a well liked and familiar sport in the USA but,

predominantly, is usually played as a fun game in the backyard or
on the beach. We know that once Americans see the other
badminton—international badminton, the world’s fastest racket
sport—they will want to see and play more. The Atlanta Olympics
started to raise the sport’s profile in the U.S. The event was a sell-
out and became one of the “must-see” sports. Ex-President
Jimmy Carter, Chelsea Clinton, Paul Newman, and Princess
Anne were among the celebrities who came to watch. David
Broder of the Washington Post reported “seeing one of the
supreme athletic spectacles of my life.”

The year 1996 was a landmark in USA badminton. It’s not only
the Atlanta Olympic Games that started to generate tremendous
interest in the U.S. market. In December 1995, the IBF introduced
a new concept tournament in California, the Hong Ta Shan Cup, a
men’s invitation tournament with the best players and big prize
money. There are now plans to add a women’s event and to
increase the prize money. The Hong Ta Shan Group has gone on
to sponsor the U.S. Open, increasing the prize money to
$200,000. This makes the event the most valuable World Grand
Prix event in the series and gives it six-star status.

The degree of change is increasing. Badminton’s debut as an

Olympic Games sport has manifestly boosted interest
internationally. The STAR TV agreement has increased the
sport’s coverage dramatically. Sponsors and television companies
are being attracted to a sport which gives them access to the
Asian economies. And spectators are increasingly attracted to the
exciting mix of angles, tactics, touch, reaction, and fitness that
would exhaust a squash champion.

badminton, court or lawn game played with

lightweight rackets and a shuttlecock. Historically, the shuttlecock
(also known as a “bird” or “birdie”) was a small cork hemisphere
with 16 goose feathers attached and weighing about 0.17 ounce (5
grams). These types of shuttles may still be used in modern play,
but shuttles made from synthetic materials are also allowed by the
Badminton World Federation. The game is named for Badminton,
the country estate of the dukes of Beaufort
in Gloucestershire, England, where it was first played about 1873.
The roots of the sport can be traced to ancient Greece, China,
and India, and it is closely related to the old children’s
game battledore and shuttlecock. Badminton is derived directly
from Poona, which was played by British army officers stationed
in India in the 1860s. The first unofficial all-England badminton
championships for men were held in 1899, and the first
badminton tournament for women was arranged the next year.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF; originally the

International Badminton Federation), the world governing body
of the sport, was formed in 1934. Badminton is also popular
in Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and Denmark. The BWF’s first
world championships were held in 1977. A number of regional,
national, and zonal badminton tournaments are held in several
countries. The best-known of these is the All-England
Championships. Other well-known international tournaments
include the Thomas Cup (donated 1939) for men’s team
competition and the Uber Cup (donated 1956) for women’s team
competition.

Badminton first appeared in the Olympic Games as a

demonstration sport in 1972 and as an exhibition sport in 1988.
At the 1992 Games it became a full-medal Olympic sport, with
competition for men’s and women’s singles (one against one) and
doubles (two against two). Mixed doubles was introduced at the
1996 Games.

Competitive badminton is usually played indoors because even

light winds affect the course of the shuttlecock. (Recreational
badminton, on the other hand, is a popular outdoor summertime
activity.) The rectangular court is 44 feet (13.4 meters) long and 17
feet (5.2 meters) wide for singles, 20 feet (6.1 meters) wide for
doubles. A net 5 feet (1.5 meters) high stretches across the width
of the court at its center. A clear space of 4 feet (1.3 meters)
around the court is needed. Play consists entirely of volleying—
hitting the shuttlecock back and forth across the net without
letting it touch the floor or ground within the boundaries of the
court.
In international play, athletes compete in best-of-three-games
matches. A game is played to 21 points, provided that the winner
has at least a 2-point advantage. If a 2-point advantage is never
reached, the first player or team to score 30 points wins. Points
were only awarded to the serving side until 2006, when the BWF
adopted the “rally scoring” system, under which either side can
score at any time.