The BWF World Championships are to badminton what the Grand Slams are to tennis. Both racket sports are among the most watched sports across the world.
What drives the numbers up are the major tournaments that happen throughout the year. Badminton also has several major tournaments, with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) organising them.
All these major badminton tournaments, that we will see below, fall under BWF’s Grade 1 system. All the top-ranked shuttlers, young and old, participate in these tournaments to bestow the tag of world champions.
On that note, let’s look at the major badminton tournament organised by BWF.
BWF World Championships
BWF World Championships is the top-most badminton tournament organised by the global governing body. The championship takes place every year and carries the most ranking points.
BWF organises the BWF World Championships across singles and doubles for men’s and women’s categories, along with a mixed category. The winners of the tournament bag a gold medal, along with being called the World Champions.
Thomas Cup and Uber Cup
Thomas and Uber Cups are team events organised for men’s and women’s categories, respectively. They are also known as World Men’s and Women’s Team Championships.
Both tournaments happen concurrently every two years. A total of 16 national teams consisting of a maximum of 10 shuttlers – five singles players, two doubles pairs, and a backup player – participate in both events.
All teams first battle it out in the group stage, followed by the knockouts, which include quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final. Men’s and women’s teams that win the final are adjudged the winners of the Thomas and Uber Cups, respectively.
Sudirman Cup
Sudirman Cup is similar to Thomas and Uber Cups, though this is a mixed-team event. That means men’s and women’s shuttlers are part of the team, making it the World Mixed Team Championships.
Sudirman Cup also takes place every two years, though in odd-numbered years (Example: 2023). The number of participating teams is also similar to that of the above men’s and women’s team events.
Olympic and Paralympic Games
The badminton matches played in the Summer Olympics and Paralympics also come under major tournaments. BWF organises the matches in co-operation with the respective Olympic committees.
The Olympic games are almost level with the BWF World Championships. So when the Olympics happen every four years, the BWF World Championships don’t take place that year.
BWF World Junior Championships
It’s another World Championships but for the junior shuttlers. Players who are under 19 compete in two different tournaments: the mixed team championship and the individual championship.
The BWF World Junior Championships is an annual event played across boys’ and girls’ singles, boys’ and girls’ doubles, and mixed doubles disciplines.
BWF World Senior Championships
As the name suggests, it’s a championship for the seniors. The shuttlers aged 35 and above compete in this event to emerge as the World Senior Champions.
The BWF World Senior Championships take place every two years. The games happen across different disciplines and age groups, like 35+, 40+, 45+, and so on till 75+.
Para-Badminton World Championships
This is the World Championships for para-badminton shuttlers. Earlier, the Para Badminton World Federation (PBWF) used to organise the event, but since 2011, BWF has been holding the tournament every two years.
The Para-Badminton World Championships is an individual event contested across different sport classes such as wheelchair (WH 1 and WH 2), standing (SL 3, SL 4, and SL 5), and short stature (SS 6).
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