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FCT BADMINTON ASSOCIATION, ABUJA
History
The history of the
development of modern badminton is a very long and complex one.
Below is a brief account of the history of the game.
Origins of the Game
The sport of
badminton has its origins in ancient civilisations in Europe and
Asia. The ancient game known as battledore (bat or paddle) and
shuttlecock probably originated more than 2000 years ago.
In the 1600s
Battledore and Shuttlecock was an upper class pastime in England and
many European countries. Battledore and Shuttlecock was simply two
people hitting a shuttlecock backwards and forwards with a simple
bat as many times as they could without allowing it to hit the
ground.
Contemporary
Badminton
A contemporary form of badminton - a game called ‘Poon’, was played
in India in the 1800s where a net was introduced and players hit the
shuttlecock across the net. British officers in the mid 1800’s took
this game back to England and it was introduced as a game for the
guests of the Duke of Beaufort at his stately home ‘Badminton’ in
Gloucestershire, England where it became popular.
In March 1898, the
first Open Tournament was held at Guildford the first 'All England'
Championships were held the following year. Denmark, the USA and
Canada became ardent followers of the game during the 1930s.
IBF Established in
1934
Then in 1934, the
International Badminton Federation was formed, with the initial
members including England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark,
Holland, Canada, New Zealand and France, with India joining as an
affiliate in 1936.
The first major IBF
tournament was the Thomas Cup (world men's team championships) in
1948. Since then, the number of world events has increased with the
addition of the Uber Cup (women’s team), World Championships
(individual events), Sudirman Cup (mixed team), World Junior
Championships and the World Grand Prix Finals.
Commonwealth Games
Sport - 1966
Badminton was
introduced as a Commonwealth Games program sport in Kingston Jamaica
in 1966 and has been part of every Commonwealth Games program since
then. Initially all five disciplines were included – singles (men,
women), doubles (men, women) and mixed doubles with the Teams Event
included in the program in later Commonwealth Games.
Olympic Games Sport
- 1992
Badminton is a
relatively new Olympic Games sport. After being a demonstration
sport in Munich in 1972, badminton became an Olympic sport in
Barcelona in 1992 with the singles and doubles disciplines
introduced for the first time in the Olympic Games. In Atlanta in
1996, a mixed doubles event was included and this is the only mixed
doubles event in all of the Olympic sports.
Only five countries
have won the gold medals since its introduction in 1992 - China
(8), Indonesia (5) and Korea (5) and Denmark (1).
Susi Susanti from Indonesia won the women’s singles in Barcelona,
becoming Indonesia’s first medallist in the 40 years Indonesia had
competed at the Games. In the same Olympic Games, Alan Budi Kusama
won Indonesia’s second gold medal in the men’s badminton singles.
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