ST Sports' Play of the Month – Badminton

Updated

Jul 27, 2024, 09:07 PM

Published

Jul 27, 2024, 07:00 PM

SINGAPORE – Badminton continues to be a smash hit in Singapore, with demand for courts hitting a 10-year high of over 961,000 bookings in 2023, according to data gathering platform Statista.

National badminton player Loh Kean Yew believes the sport owes its popularity to the fact that it can be played anywhere.

Take it from the 2021 world champion, who started playing badminton as a family activity when he was growing up in Penang. Aged five, he would play with his parents and three older brothers in front of their terraced house, using the gate as a net.

The 27-year-old said: “You can book a court in a hall to play badminton, or you can play at a void deck or anywhere with a portable net, the most important thing is to have fun.”

While its origins are unclear, badminton’s popularity can be traced back more than 2,000 years ago when an early version of the game was played across ancient Greece, China and India before the Duke of Beaufort reportedly invented modern badminton after taking it to England.

Since then, performance analytics platform Above Sports estimates there are over 339 million active players and approximately 735 million fans worldwide.

The sport has undergone numerous facelifts. From a piece of wood and animal guts as strings, the racket has transformed into lightweight graphite composite weapons with hybrid nylon strings, while goose feathers have been replaced by synthetic ones on the shuttlecocks.

While the dimension of the court has remained, gameplay has been updated several times.

Players now win a match by claiming two games – by reaching 21 points first with at least a two-point advantage – but previously they raced to 15, 11 or seven points for a game, with only the server scoring points.

Smashes at the elite level can exceed 500kmh, but badminton is also a game of finesse, with deceptive drop shots and net tumbles.

Loh, who is competing at the Paris Olympics, said: “Badminton is fun because you are playing against an opponent, so things are always changing and different, and you can be creative to find ways to trick and beat your opponent.

“It is also a full-body workout. You need to use your brain to find ways to be creative, and at the same time, it trains your motor skills so you can have better hand-eye coordination.”

Singapore and neighbours Malaysia boast a rich history in the sport. In the 1950s, Singaporean Wong Peng Soon was a multiple Thomas Cup and All England Open champion, before Misbun Sidek led the way for the five Sidek brothers to star for Malaysia from the 1980s.

After being included as a demonstration sport in Munich 1972, badminton became part of the official programme at Barcelona 1992. Indonesia and South Korea split the four golds on offer, but China has since dominated at the last six editions.

But national men’s doubles player Loh Kean Hean, the older brother of Kean Yew, believes smaller nations can also produce world beaters.

The 29-year-old, who co-founded the Elever Badminton academy, said: “Everyone has the ability to become a good player. Putting talent aside, what sets good players apart are their passion towards the sport, the never-give-up spirit, and the ability to endure hardship.”

Before Loh, para athlete Tay Wei Ming was the first Singaporean to become a badminton world champion, after partnering Indonesia’s Suryo Nugroho to win the men’s doubles SU5 gold at the 2017 World Championships.

In 2023, sexagenarians Foo Kon Fai and Victor Sim became the first Singaporean champions at the World Senior Championships in the 65+ men’s singles and 65+ men’s doubles respectively.

Foo, 67, who returned to the sport in his 40s, said: “As a senior citizen now, I realise badminton has helped my wife and I age well by staying active and keeping us agile physically and mentally.”