Olympic Games

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Badminton at the Olympic Games

Badminton was first held as a demonstration sport at the 1972 Summer Olympics. In 1988 it again appeared at the Olympics as an exhibition sport. Badminton premiered as a full-medal Olympic sport at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.

Badminton was again featured at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and has continued as a full-medal sport since then. The Mixed Doubles were included in the Olympic Games for the first time in Atlanta in 1996.

Olympic Qualification

• Players qualify for the Olympic Games through their world rankings, based on their performances in such events as the Thomas Cup, the Uber Cup, the World Championships, Grand Prix events and other international and continental championships. The host nation is allowed at least two entries in the Olympic competition.

• No country may have more than three players or pairs in any event, and that involves only players or pairs ranked in the top 16. The limit is two per country if a player or pair ranked 17th to 64th is involved, or one if a player or pair ranked below 64th is involved.

• Each event will include at least one player or pair from each region — Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania and the Americas.

Players

• The best all-time performing badminton player at the Olympic Games (results up until 2012) is Gao Ling of China, who played in 2000 and 2004, winning 4 gold medals. See more on the Greatest Badminton Players at the Olympics.

Related Pages

• For more information about the sport of Badminton.
• See also information about badminton at the Commonwealth Games
• List of Olympic Sports