Badminton: Sport’s Olympics future in doubt

SINGAPORE: Badminton’s Olympic future is in jeopardy due to the continual mid-tournament retirements of leading players, according to Athens Games gold medallist Taufik Hidayat. Last week’s $1 million Korean Open was blighted by a number of match retirements by players, a now common occurrence on the tour. Indonesian Taufik is concerned the International Olympic Committee could end the sport’s 20-year run at the Games. “The situation has worsened. The constant retirements of players do not augur well for the game,” said the 31-year-old.  “There is talk that badminton may not make it as a sport in the 2020 Olympics. We must bear in mind that other sports are strongly lobbying to be included.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2013.