Badminton Around the World (Shuttle Time)

I found this video on the badminton world Youtube channel (BadmintonWorld.tv) and thought that I would show it to you guys. Its about a programme called 'Shuttle Time' which the BWF set up around the world to inspire children across the world. It just goes to show that anyone can play badminton anywhere!

Video source: BadmintonWorld.tv

Past Winners Locations

In my previous post, I talked about major badminton locations and why Asia are so dominant in the badminton world. This post is about where the past winners of the BWF World Championships came from, and the results may surprise you.

For now, lets put aside the amount of times a player (or players) from a country have won a medal (or medals). The first thing I noticed when I looked at this is that North America have won at least a gold medal. I don't know how big badminton is in America, but I do know that people from North America don't enter tournaments very often and that the highest ranking person from the USA men's singles is ranked 60th in the world. This shows that badminton may have been popular back a few years ago. Its a shame that people from America don't show up in major tournaments anymore and I hope that they get back into badminton and turn up with some more world-class players.

It also shows that England have won gold, and that Scotland have won silver, which shows that the Asian countries are not always the top dogs.

I just want people to appreciate this map and where previous winners of the World Championships have come from, and to maybe influence badminton players from anywhere that they can make it to the big tournaments, regardless of geographical location

Image source: Wikipedia

Major Badminton Locations

When most people think of major locations in badminton and the best badminton players, they think of the Asian countries, mainly China. This is true, but there are other countries that have high ranking badminton players and good badminton facilities to make these players world class.

For example, Denmark are the 4th best badminton team in the world (at the moment) with two players ranked in the top 10 players in the world for singles, and one pair in the top 10 men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. Germany have a pair in the mixed doubles ranked within the top 10, and Spain have a player ranked within the top 10 of the women's singles.


Yes, players from countries like China, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan usually dominate tournaments and other competitions but that doesn't mean that other countries shouldn't be ruled out.


The main advantage that Asian countries have over other countries is the fact that the government found the sport, which is not the case in countries such as Ireland, which means that the players don't need to worry about the costs of accommodation and transport, all they have to concentrate on is the competition itself.
Honestly, I don't see why, in most European countries, that badminton is such an underrated sport. If countries actually had some funding for badminton like they fund other sports, the competition would be a lot more fierce and there would be more countries that would be able to produce world class badminton players.

Badminton Origins

Badminton originated from British India. It was created by British Military officers. It was originally called battledore and shuttlecock. You can see why the name was changed! The retired officers brought the sport back to England, where the rules were created and the sport was developed.

The BWF (Badminton World Federation, known as the International Badminton Federation originally) was established in 1934. The founding members were Canada, Denmark, England, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. The BWF governs international badminton and it develops the sport globally. For being originally developed in England, badminton has been dominated by Asian nations (especially in men’s singles competitions) with China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Denmark and South Korea consistently producing world-class players.

Source of information/credit: Wikipedia

Welcome

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog on the geography of badminton. I hope you enjoy reading the posts that will be coming to the blog. Enjoy!