About

- Badminton is played by hitting the shuttle back and forth over the net without allowing it to hit the playing surface. 

- The shuttle is made of feathers or nylon in a cork base. It flies slowly when hit gently. But when hit hard and timed perfectly, it may travel more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) per hour.

 
Rules

- Two people play singles and four—two on each side—play doubles. A mixed doubles team consists of one man and one woman. 

- The shuttle is served with an underhand motion into the opponent's service court, diagonally opposite. 

- The server must hit the shuttle while it is below his or her waist. 

- The racket head must also be below the serving hand. 

- Only one attempt on the serve is allowed. If the server fails, then the opponent serves.

Scoring

- Only the side that is serving can score a point.

- The server scores in 1 of 2 ways; when the opponent lets the shuttle drop to the court or by a fault. 

- A fault occurs when the opponent touches the net or shuttle, returns the shuttle into or under the net, or hits it out of the playing area; or when the shuttle is caught and held on the racket and then slung during a stroke.  

- In doubles and men's singles, a game is won by the first side to score 15 points. However, if the score is tied at 14, the side that first scored 14 can choose to play the game to 15 points or to play to 17 points. 

- In women's singles, if the score is tied at 10, the side that first scored 10 points can choose either to continue the game to 11 points or play to 13 points. 

- The first side to win two games wins the match.

Photo courtesy of Confederação Brasileira de Badminton Credit: Luiz Aureliano Garcia

 

List of Olympic Events

- Doubles Men
- Doubles Women
- Doubles Mixed
- Singles Men
- Singles Women
 
Medals for 2004 Summer Olympics

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Doubles Men	Coréia: Dong Moon Kim, Tae-Kwon Ha	Coréia: Dong Soo Lee, Yong-Sung Yoo	Indonésia: Eng Hian, Flandy Limpele
Doubles Women	China: Wei Yang, Jiewen Zhang	China: Sui Huang, Ling Gao	Coréia: Kyung-Min Ra, Kyung Won Lee
Doubles Mixed	China: Jun Zhang, Ling Gao	Grã-Bretanha: Nathan Robertson, Gail emms	Dinamarca: Jens Erikson, Mette Schjoldager
Singles Men	Indonésia: Taufik Hidayat	Coréia: Seung Mo Shon	Indonésia- Soni Dwi Kuncoro
Singles Women	China- Ning Zhang	Holanda: Mia Audina	China: Mi Zhou

World Record Holder

- Men's doubles player Fu Haifeng of China set the official world smash record of 332 km/h (206 mph) on June 3, 2005 in the Sudirman Cup. The fastest smash recorded in the singles competition is 305 km/h (189 mph) by Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia.

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