If you are someone who plays badminton regularly, then you know how fascinating the sport is. Its quick gameplay can leave anyone captivated, isn’t it?
But there are a few things about the racket sport that will equally amaze, if not more. So here are the seven interesting facts about badminton you perhaps didn’t know!
A Feet Sport!
As mentioned earlier, badminton is a racket sport. But before the sport evolved into how we play it today, Chinese people used to hit the shuttle with their feet rather than the racket.
Shocking, isn’t it? Well, what’s more surprising is that the Chinese people still play it. They call it Jianzi, with the shuttle having four feathers glued into a rubber sole.
It is almost similar to how we play badminton, with two players playing against each other or a group of five to ten people playing it.
From Battledore and Shuttlecock to Poona to Badminton
When the sport was in its earlier stage in mediaeval times, people called it battledore and shuttlecock. But in the mid-19th century, the sport started taking shape in the town of Poona in India.
The officers from the British Army posted at the Poona Military Station took a liking for the sport and started calling it ‘Poona’. Then they took the sport with them to the United Kingdom, which garnered attention from the Duke of Beaufort.
He further introduced the sport to guests during a party at his estate, the Badminton House. And that’s how the sport derived its name, with the Duke of Beaufort calling it ‘the badminton game’ after his estate.
Goose Feathers Used for Shuttlecock
If you have been playing or watching the sport, then you know that players use the shuttle made of feathers. And they are not artificial feathers but extracted from a real goose.
Yes, the manufacturers use the feathers obtained from the left wing of a goose. A total of 16 feathers are needed to manufacture a shuttlecock.
Olympic Debut
The All England Open was the first major badminton tournament, as it started in 1899 – three years after the first-ever Olympics took place in 1896. But it took more than nine decades for badminton to make its debut at the Olympics.
Badminton made its first appearance at the 1992 Olympic Games held in Barcelona. Now the badminton matches played at the Olympics hold a lot of prestige.
Longest Rally
What’s more intriguing than watching the shuttle fly from one end to another? A continuous back and forth of the shuttle without dropping it on the court is known as a rally.
It’s quite a challenge for players not to make a false shot and keep the rally going. But during a women’s doubles match in 2023, a rally went on for 211 shots!
That’s the longest rally recorded in badminton, with Malaysia’s Thinaah Muralitharan-Pearly Tan and Japan’s Rena Miyaura-Ayako Sakuramoto scripting the history.
Both pairs kept attacking and defending, with the rally lasting for more than three minutes.
Shortest Badminton Match
The longest rally lasted for three minutes, but another badminton match was over within six minutes. Unbelievable, right?
In the 1996 Uber Cup, the women’s singles match between South Korea’s Ra Kyung-min and England’s Julia Mann ended in six minutes. The South Korean shuttler defeated Mann in straight sets by 11-2, 11-1.
Longest Badminton Match
On the other hand, a women’s doubles badminton match lasted for 161 minutes. It was the semi-final played at the 2016 Badminton Asian Championships.
The Japanese pair of Kurumi Yonao and Naoko Fukuman were up against the Indonesian duo of Greysia Polii and Nitya Krishinda Maheswari. It was a fiercely contested game, which lasted for two hours and 41 minutes, or 161 minutes, with the scoreline – 13-21, 21-19, 24-24 – going in the Japanese pair’s favour.
Read Next | Top 10 Midfielders of All Time in English Premier League