Competitions are held in five categories - men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles (a pair consists of a man and a woman). The game includes three games. The side that first reaches 15 points (11 for women) wins each game. Only the serving side can win a point.
Badminton is an ancient game. More than three thousand years ago, there was a game in China called di jiau qi, which used a feathered ball. Rock paintings found in India, more than two thousand years old, depict people playing peona, a prototype of badminton. A game with a feathered ball was also known in Malaya. In Japan, they played oibane from very ancient times. This word, meaning 'flying feather' in translation, was the name of a game that used a dried cherry with five or six goose feathers inserted into it.
Over time, games that use a feathered ball came to Europe and America and became quite popular there. In France, such a game was volant, in the USA - battledore, in Russia - letok.
The English Lord Beaufort, during his stay in India, became acquainted with a game that used a feathered ball, and after returning to England in 1873, organized a tournament held in the town of Badminton. The game received its modern name from the name of this English town.
In 1887, the first badminton club was created in England. In 1893, 14 English clubs founded the world's first badminton association and recorded the rules of the game. In 1899, the first open English championship was held (to this day, Wimbledon is one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world), and in 1902, the first international match between the English and the Irish.
In 1934, the International Badminton Federation was created, founded by nine countries - England, Holland, Denmark, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Wales, France, and Scotland. Now IBF has 147 countries.
The largest team competition among men is the Thomas Cup (since 1948) - the official world championship. The tournament is named after the first IBF president, George Thomas from England. Women's teams compete for the Uber Cup (named after the outstanding American badminton player Betty Uber and held since 1956).
In 1951, badminton first appeared on television screens. In 1967, the European Badminton Union (EBU) was established, and a year later the first European Championship took place, with champions from Sweden and West Germany.
In 1974, the USSR joined the IBF, in 1975 - the EBU, and in 1977, the first World Badminton Championship was held in the Swedish city of Malmö. Representatives of Denmark won. Two years later, the first fully professional badminton tournament took place. And in 1983, the first final of the World Grand Prix series was held.
Badminton took a long time to get into the Olympic Games program. As early as 1972, a demonstration badminton tournament was held in Munich, but it officially became an Olympic sport only 20 years later - in Barcelona. The first Olympic champion in singles was Indonesian Alan Kusuma Wiratama. In doubles, Korean male and female athletes won, and among women, the first was also a representative of Indonesia.
As we can see, on a global scale, the strongest badminton players are representatives of the very region that gave the planet this game - the Far East and Indochina. And among Europeans, Denmark, Holland, and England are the most 'badminton-playing' nations.