London 2012 Badminton Smash

One of the most dynamic Olympic sports, Badminton made its full Olympic debut at Barcelona 1992. Although the rules of the modern sport were developed in England, Asian countries now dominate: China, Indonesia and South Korea have won 23 of the 24 gold medals awarded since the sport’s first appearance at the Games.  The London 2012 Badminton competition will be held at Wembley Arena, on a site that has hosted major events ever since the British Empire Exhibition opened there in 1924.

At London 2012, there will be five medal events: men’s and women’s Singles, men’s and women’s Doubles, and Mixed Doubles. All events will begin with a preliminary stage: the competitors will be divided into groups, and each player and doubles pair will play everyone else in their group. The best players and doubles pairs from this stage (16 in each Singles event, eight pairs in each Doubles event) will qualify for the knockout stage of the competition, which will eventually decide the winners of the medals.