2024 Year in Sport, Badminton: Misses at the Olympics, medal haul at Paralympics, civil war and calls for change

Badminton’s exclusion from the upcoming 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland was perhaps the biggest news coming from the sport this year.

This move drew flak from some of India’s prominent names in badminton, given that the country has won 31 medals in the racquet sport in the CWG.

Apart from this, there were retirements, there heartbreaks, and there were athletes lashing out at their federations in 2024. We take a look at the major highlights in badminton this year:

January

– Tai Tzu Ying clinched the India Open at New Delhi’s KD Jadhav stadium, beginning the last season in her storied career with a title.

In last lap of career, Tai Tzu Ying pulls out greatest hits against Yufei

– The Badminton Association of India (BAI) secretary Sanjay Mishra said that there were plans to revive the Premier Badminton League either by the end of 2024 or early next year.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (R) and Chirag Shetty of India celebrate the victory in the Men’s Doubles Semi Finals match against Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae of Korea during day five of the Malaysia Open at Axiata Arena on January 13, 2024 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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Getty Images

– Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty regained the World No. 1 ranking in men’s doubles after successive runner-up finishes in the Malaysia Open Super 1000 and India Open Super 750 tournaments.

February

– The Indian women shuttlers, with youngster Anmol Kharb getting her moment in the sun, clinched a historic gold medal in the Badminton Asia Team Championships after beating Thailand 3-2.

India’s Anmol Kharb (C) celebrates after winning against Thailand’s Pornpicha Choeikeewong in their women’s singles final match at the 2024 Badminton Asia Team Championships in Shah Alam, Selangor, on February, 18, 2024.
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AFP

– Former Malaysian shuttler Lee Chong Wei shot a warning ahead of the Paris Olympics and urged that drastic changes were needed to rescue the sport in his country. He felt like “giving up” on Malaysian badminton after the country fell 0-3 to China in the men’s event at the Asia Team Championships.

– India got three world champions in the Para World Badminton Championships in Pramod Bhagat, Suhas Yathiraj and Krishna Nagar, and ended the tournament with 18 medals.

March

– B. Sai Praneeth, who won a World Championship bronze medal in 2019, called time on his international career.

– Satwik-Chirag won their second French Open title after beating Chinese Taipei’s Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan in the final. This was also the Indian pair’s first title of the year.

– At the All-England Open, Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie won the tournament for the first time in his career while Spain’s Carolina Marin clinched her second title after a gap of nine years.

Carolina Marin of Spain celebrates after winning the Women’s Singles Final against Akane Yamaguchi of Japan during Day Six of the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships 2024 at Utilita Arena Birmingham on March 17, 2024 in Birmingham, England.
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April

– At 29, two-time world champion Kento Momota of Japan announced his retirement from international badminton, adding that he would continue plying his trade in his country’s domestic circuit.

– The Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced India as the host for next year’s World Junior Championships, with the tournament set to take place in Guwahati. This is the second time the country will host the competition after it did so back in 2008 in Pune.

May

– Indonesia suffered twice at the hands of China as the latter won both the Thomas and the Uber Cups this year.

– Satwik-Chirag won its second title of the year after beating China’s Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi in the final of the Thailand Open.

– Indian women’s doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand pulled off an upset by beating the then World No. 2 duo Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee of South Korea to make the Singapore Open quarterfinals.

June

– Indian Para-shuttler Suhas Yathiraj, who clinched a World Championships gold earlier in the year, became World No. 1 for the first time, displacing French legend Lucas Mazur.

– A 17-year-old player from China, Zhang Zhijie, unfortunately passed away after collapsing on the court during an Asia Junior Championships match.

July

– Indian youngster Priyanshu Rajawat beat then World No. 4 Anders Antonsen of Denmark to make the Canada Open semifinals.

August

– In the Paris Olympics, Lakshya Sen became the first Indian man to qualify for the semifinals at the Games. He eventually lost in the bronze medal match. On the other hand, Satwik-Chirag, which was favourite to medal in the quadrennial event, bowed out in the quarterfinals. It was South Korea’s An Se-Young and Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen clinched the women’s and men’s singles titles respectively.

Lakshya Sen tried hard but lost his bronze medal match against Jia Lee of Malaysia in men’s singles in La Chapelle arena in Paris Olympic 2024 in Paris on Monday, 05 August 2024.
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RITU RAJ KONWAR

– Mathias Boe, an Olympic silver medallist and more recently the coach of Satwik-Chirag retired from his coaching days, making the announcement after the Indian duo crashed out of the Paris Olympics in the quarters.

– Young, after clinching the Olympics gold, lambasted her country’s badminton federation, revealing how she was forced by the national body to play through injuries. She also criticised South Korea’s training methods and called them outdated.

– World champion and reigning Paralympics gold medallist Pramod Bhagat was ruled out of the Paris Games after he was found guilty of breaching anti-doping regulations by the BWF.

– After winning silver at the Paris Olympics, China’s He Bing Jiao announced her retirement from international badminton.

– Indian teen Tanvi Patri won the U-15 girls singles title at the Badminton Asia U-17 & U-15 junior championships and became the third player from the country to do so after Samiya Imad Farooqui and Tasnim Mir won in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

Tanvi Patri, the U-15 singles champion at the 2024 Asian Junior (U15 & U17) badminton championships in Chengdu and U-15 and U-17 girls’ singles winner at the 2024 sub-junior Nationals in Chennai, training at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit:
SUDHAKARA JAIN

September

– Nitesh Kumar won the gold medal in the men’s singles SL3 category at the Paris Paralympics. Shortly after that, he came out and let known his frustration with the BAI and asked Indian para-badminton to be placed under the aegis of the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI).

– Malvika Bansod of India began her China Open campaign with an upset as she beat Paris Olympics bronze medallist Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia.

October

– Badminton, amongst other sports, was dropped from 2026 Commonwealth Games set to be hosted by Glasgow in Scotland.

November

– Treesa-Gayatri sealed its spot in the BWF World Tour Finals, being the lone representation from India.

– Satwik-Chirag returned after a gap of three months and made it till the China Masters semifinals. However, the pair withdrew from the Syed Modi International tournament.

– Former player Parupalli Kashyap came out and made a bold statement that badminton as a sport hasn’t grown in India.

Parupalli Kashyap: We have superstars and money but badminton as a sport hasn’t grown

December

– Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu ended her two-year title drought by clinching the Syed Modi singles title as Treesa-Gayatri won the women’s doubles to collect its maiden Super 300 title.

– Paralympics gold medallist Nitesh Kumar was nominated by the BWF for the men’s Para Badminton Player of the Year award.

– Doubles specialist Tan Kim Her, known for bringing Satwik and Chirag together, returned to India for a second stint as a coach for the national team.