Tokyo 2020

Tokyo 2020

Qualification Process

Tokyo 2020 will be the eighth time badminton is being held as an Olympic medal sport

Badminton’s Olympic Journey

A total of 172 players in five categories – men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles – will participate in the badminton competition from 25 July to 3 August 2020.

Qualification Timeline

29 April 2019 to 26 April 2020 – Qualification period for Tokyo 2020
28 April 2020 – World ranking lists published
6 May 2020 – Deadline for host NOC to confirm in writing host country places
7 May 2020 – BWF to inform NOCs/NFs of their allocated quota places
21 May 2020 – NOCs to confirm in writing to BWF the use of allocated quota places
6 July 2020 – BWF allocate all unused quota places
6 July 2020 – Tokyo 2020 Sport Entries deadline
24 July 2020 – Start of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

The qualification period for the Olympic contenders is from 29 April 2019 to 26 April 2020. The World Ranking lists as of 28 April 2020 will be used to allocate the quota places in the five events.

The BWF World Ranking Lists as of 28 April 2020 will be used to allocate 34 individuals for singles and 16 pairs for doubles quota places per gender to the highest ranked athletes. This reflects the maximum quota allocation per National Olympic Committee (NOC) per event.

In each singles event, there shall be at least one athlete from each of the five BWF Continental Confederations (Continental Representation Places). If for a particular Continental Confederation there is no singles athlete qualified in an event, the athlete selected for Continental Representation Place shall be the highest ranked athlete in the BWF ranking list as of 28 April 2020 from the respective continent.

In each doubles event there shall be at least one pair from each of the five BWF Continental Confederations (Continental Representation Place), which shall be the highest ranked pair in the World Ranking Lists as of 28 April 2020 from the respective Continent, provided the pair is ranked 50 or above (ranked between 1-50) in the BWF World Ranking list as of 28 April 2020.

The Host NOC (Japan) is entitled to one Host Country Place in Men’s Singles and one Host Country Place in Women’s Singles should the Host Country not qualify any quota place in each singles event. The athletes receiving Host Country Places will be the highest ranked athlete(s) on the respective Single’s World Ranking List(s) as of 28 April 2020. If there is no host NOC athlete on the World Ranking Lists, the NOC will choose and confirm the respective athletes to BWF, at the latest by 6th of May 2020.

Six Tripartite Commission Invitation Places are made available to eligible NOCs at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: three in the Men’s Singles and three in the Women’s Singles. On 14 October 2019, the International Olympic Committee will invite all eligible NOCs to submit their requests for Tripartite Commission Invitation Places. The deadline for NOCs to submit their requests is 15 January 2020.

The deadline for all entries is 6 July 2020. Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be held from 24 July to 9 August 2020.

QUALIFICATION SYSTEM – GAMES OF THE XXXII OLYMPIAD – TOKYO 2020 – see Section 5.4.1.1 of the BWF Statutes.

FAQs

How do players qualify for Tokyo 2020?

Players qualify based on their performances during the 52-week qualifying period from 29 April 2019 to 26 April 2020.

The World Ranking lists as of 30 April 2020 will be used to allocate the athletes’ quota places in all five categories. Each list will be based on points accumulated during the qualifying period.

How many players can qualify in singles and in doubles?

The total number of players allocated to badminton cannot exceed 172. The exact number of singles and doubles players between Olympics may vary as some players qualify for more than one event. A player cannot play in more than two events at a particular Olympics.

The initial number of athletes in each singles event is 34, while in each doubles event it is 32 (16 pairs).

How does the quota system work?

In singles, the BWF World Ranking lists as of 30 April 2020 will be used to allocate 34 individual quota places for men and 34 individual quota places for women to the highest ranked athletes, respecting the maximum quota allocation per NOC per event and including at least one athlete from each of the five BWF Continental Confederations.

Format

The competition consists of group stages followed by knock-out stages. In singles, the number of groups will be based on the number of competitors. The number of seeds will correspond to the number of groups. There shall be up to 16 seeds in the main draw of singles.

The top ranked player from each group will qualify for the knock-out stage.

In doubles, the 16 pairs will be divided into four groups. The top two pairs from each group will qualify for the knock-out stages. A fresh draw (only for doubles) will be made for the knock-out stage. Pairs from the same group will be separated in the knock-out stage.

Players/pairs from a particular NOC will not be drawn in the same group.