Badminton at the London 2012 Games will feature men’s, women’s, doubles and mixed doubles events.
2012 Summer Olympic Badminton Events Key facts
Dates: Saturday 28 July – Saturday 4 August
Gold medals: 5
Athletes: 172 (86 men, 86 women)
Badminton: Then and now
Badminton grew out of game called ‘Poone’, which was popular in India in the 19th century.
Its modern rules were created by an Englishman, John Loraine Baldwin, who named the new sport after Badminton House, where he – and many other visitors – had enjoyed playing a game involving ‘battledores’, shuttlecocks and a net in the Great Hall.
Badminton quickly caught on in the United Kingdom in the late 19th century. Today it is among the world’s most popular sports, both in terms of participation and spectator numbers.
Badminton at the Games
Badminton first appeared at the Games as a demonstration event in Munich 1972. It became a full medal sport 20 years later, at the Barcelona 1992 Games. However, it was not until Atlanta 1996 that the Mixed Doubles event was added to the Olympic Badminton programme.
Badminton is still most popular in its traditional heartlands of Europe and Asia. Indonesia, Korea and China are the dominant forces in the sport.
How to play – and win
Badminton is played on a court 13.4 metres (44 feet) long and 6.1m (20ft) wide, divided in half by a net approximately 1.5m (5ft) high.
The object of the game is to hit the shuttlecock over the net and either land it in your opponent’s half of the court, or have them hit it into the net or out of the court.
A match is the best of three games, played to 21 points.
Jargon buster
* Kill: An un-returnable shot, hit straight down into the opponent’s court.
* Drive: A fast, low shot that crosses the net at a horizontal angle.
* Smash: A hard overhead shot, hit straight down into the opponent’s court.
* Lift: A shot played from beneath the height of the net, normally played high to the back of the court.
* Slice: Normally an overhead shot which hits across the feathers of the shuttle, to bring the shuttle down at a steeper angle and to add deception.
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