Seungjae Seo (right) and Yujeong Chae won the mixed doubles title at the 2023 Denmark World Badminton Championships. [연합뉴스 자료사진]
The Badminton World Championships are held every year by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Championships is the highest ranking points-awarding tournament along with the Summer Olympics badminton tournament, which was first introduced at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The winner of the World Championships is called the ‘World Champion.’ Ahn Se-young, currently ranked No. 1 in the women’s singles world rankings, won the gold medal in the women’s singles event at the 2023 World Championships in Denmark, making her the first Korean female player to win a singles world championship.
The World Championships first began in 1977 in Malmo, Sweden. Until 1983, the competition was held once every three years. After merging with BWF in 1981, the International Badminton Federation (IBF) has held the World Championships every two years since 1985. At the 2006 General Assembly in Madrid, Spain, the name of IBF was changed to BWF, and it was changed to an annual event starting with the 2006 World Championships in Madrid, Spain. The decision to hold the competition every year was to promote world badminton. However, in years when the Olympics are held, the World Championships are not held for reasons of overlapping competitions. Badminton was operated as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and was adopted as an official sport at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. (Refer to this corner, episode 1054, ‘Why do we say ‘World Badminton Federation’?’)
The World Championships feature five events, including men’s and women’s singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Apart from the World Championships, where singles and doubles competitions are held, there is a separate World Championships for national team competitions, which are called the Thomas Cup for men, the Uber Cup for women, and the Sudirman Cup for mixed gender. From 1989 to 2001, the World Championships were held at the same venue immediately after the Sudirman Cup.
In all world championships until 2023, China has achieved the best performance with 70 gold medals, and Korea ranks third with 13 gold medals, following Indonesia (23 gold medals). At the 2023 Denmark World Championships, Korea won the overall championship with three gold medals, with Ahn Se-young in women’s singles, Kang Min-hyuk and Seo Seung-jae in men’s doubles, and Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yu-jeong in mixed doubles. China only won the women’s doubles event.
Previous world championships have been held in various parts of the world since the first competition. The country with the most World Championships was Denmark, which held it five times. Next, China and Indonesia tied for second place with three times. Japan has hosted the event only once, in 2022, and Korea has yet to host it.
This year’s World Championships will be skipped a year due to the Paris Olympics being held, and the 29th competition will be held in Paris next year.
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2024-03-25 23:28:54
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