The 32-year journey of badminton at the Olympics has thrown up innumerable moments to cherish and accomplishments to relive. Here are some interesting highlights:

• Badminton kicked off at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics with a men’s singles match between Malaysia’s Foo Kok Keong and Norway’s Hans Sperre. After the very first rally, the shuttle was saved for display at the Olympic museum in Lausanne.

• The first gold medal in badminton was won by Indonesia’s Susi Susanti in women’s singles. Not long after, the men’s singles gold went to Alan Budi Kusuma – her fiancé at the time.
• China are far and away the most successful nation with 20 gold medals, followed by Indonesia with eight and Korea six.

• Malaysia’s Sidek brothers are the only siblings to medal at the Olympics. At Atlanta 1996, Rashid Sidek became the third member of his family to win bronze (men’s singles) after his elder brothers Razif and Jalani (men’s doubles at Barcelona 1992).
• Mia Audina won silver medals at two Olympics representing different countries. Audina was women’s singles runner-up at Atlanta 1996 representing her birthplace Indonesia; later she emigrated to the Netherlands and made it to the Athens 2004 final.

• Poul-Erik Høyer, gold medallist in 1996, is the current President of the BWF, while the opponent he beat in the final, Dong Jiong, is the head coach of China’s Para badminton team.
• Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei made three straight men’s singles finals (2008, 2012, 2016). While he lost the first two to Lin Dan, he was beaten in the 2016 final by another Chinese, Chen Long.

• Four women’s doubles pairs were disqualified at London 2012 for not using their best efforts to win. Of these eight players, Korea’s Jung Kyung Eun returned for Rio 2016 with a different partner and won bronze, but the fairytale was Indonesia’s Greysia Polii, gold medallist at Tokyo 2020.
• China’s five-edition gold-winning run in women’s doubles from 1996-2012 remains the longest in any category.
• When Chen Long finished runner-up to Viktor Axelsen in Tokyo 2020, he achieved a full set of medals – bronze in London 2012, gold in Rio 2016 and silver in Tokyo 2020. The other players with a full set are China’s Gao Ling (two gold in mixed doubles in 2000 and 2004, and a silver and a bronze each in women’s doubles in 2000 and 2004) and Korea’s Gil Young Ah, with gold in mixed doubles (1996), and silver and bronze in women’s doubles (1992 and 1996).
• At least one top seed has risen to the highest step of the podium at the previous eight Olympics.
• Polii is the oldest player to win gold. She was 33 years and 356 days on finals day in Tokyo.
• Record for the youngest gold medallist belongs to Korean doubles legend Lee Yong Dae. Lee was 19 years and 341 days when he won mixed doubles in 2008.