Take a look at the venue for Badminton and Rhythmic Gymnastics Olympic events during the 2008 Beijing Games.

Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium (Exterior)
Do you see how majestic this venue is? You won’t find anything like it here in my country. The sight of it is both awesome and forbidding. I can’t imagine how athletes will feel on that very moment that this grand structure falls into view. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d double in excitement and nervousness.

Just a bit of update on the world of Badminton, since I’m fresh off a game of Badminton myself. My arm hurts. Gah.
Results from the quarter-finals of the world badminton championships here Friday (x denotes seed):
Men’s singles
Sony Dwi Kuncoro (INA x9) def Peter Gade (DEN x5) 22-20, 21-18
Lin Dan (CHN x1) def Anup Sridhar (IND) 22-20, 21-9
Bao Chunlai (CHN x4) def Kenneth Jonassen (DEN) 21-18, 21-15
Women’s singles
Zhang Ning (CHN x1) def Tracey Hallam (ENG x16) 21-11, 21-9

Take a quick look on the current competition schedule for Badminton that I was able to round up.
Yonex-Sunrise Asian Continental Championship 2007
Johor Bharu – Malaysia
April 10 – 15, 2007

Aviva Open Singapore Super Series 2007
Singapore city – Singapore
May 1 – 20, 2007
Smiling Fish Asian Satelitte Championships 2007
Trang – Thailand
May 1 – 20, 2007
Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Hmmm. Makes you realise why Asia somewhat dominates the sport, eh?
Olympic-hopefuls from these countries are surely gearing up for the upcoming Games in Beiijng.
So, who’s up for a game of rackets and shuttlecock? :mrgreen:
Source

I just told you guys about the short history of badminton, so, you all know that it all started in Barcelona and Young-Ah Gil was one of the athletes who saw it happened then.
As a demonstration sport back in Munich 1972, Badminton became an official sport that was included in the programme for the Barcelona Games. And at the time it was introduced, Asia was dominating the sport.
“Four events were on the programme: men’s’ singles and doubles and women’s singles and doubles. Some 177 athletes from 36 countries took part in the competition, including doubles specialist Young-Ah Gil, then aged …read more

Contemporary badminton first appeared in the mid-19th century, it evolved from the game battledore and shuttlecock,

played by two persons with small rackets, called battledores, made of parchment or rows of gut stretched across wooden frames, and shuttlecocks, made of a base of some light material, like cork, with trimmed feathers fixed round the top.
[Wikipedia]
which can be traced back to ancient Greece, China, Japan and India.
Now, it’s especially popular in Asia and Europe. Badminton became a full competition sport at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.
Source

It’s the world’s first intercontinental Badminton team championship going to be held here in Manila next month.
Seeded players from the two continents will be competing so let me name a few.

Zhang Ning [China]
World’s #2 – Ladies’ Singles
Olympic Gold Medalist – Athens 2004
Wang Chen [Hong Kong]
World’s #3 – Ladies’ Singles
Mia Audina [The Netherlands]
World’s #5 – Ladies’ Singles

Lin Dan [China]
World’s #1 – Men’s Singles
Kenneth Jonassen [Denmark]
World’s #5 Men’s Singles
Donna Kellog & Gail Emms [England]
World’s #4 – Ladies’ Doubles
Niels Christian Kaldu [Denmark]
World’s #10 – Men’s Singles

Taufik Hidayat [Indonesia]
World’s #8 – Men’s Singles
Olympic Gold Medalist – Athens 2004
Michael Logosz & Robert Mateuziak [Poland]
World’s #8 …read more

In the upcoming Summer Olympics, we can expect the following disciplines:

Aquatics
Archery
Athletics
Badminton
Baseball
Basketball
Boxing
Canoe / kayak
Cycling
Equestrian
Fencing
Football
Gymnastics
Handball
Hockey
Judo
Modern Pentathlon
Rowing
Sailing
Shooting
Softball
Table Tennis
Taekwondo
Tennis
Triathlon
Volleyball
Weightlifting
Wrestling