An Se-young leads Korean badminton into Paris Olympics

Korea is one of the most successful nations in badminton but has come up short in recent years, winning just one bronze medal in the sport at each of the three previous editions of the Games.

An Se-young competes during the women's singles semifinals at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Oct. 7, 2023. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

Korea is sending a dozen badminton players to the 2024 Paris Olympics to bring home the country’s first gold medal since 2008 with a national team led by world No. 1 An Se-young.

Badminton will run from July 27 through Aug. 5 across five categories. Korea has at least one entry in each tournament — men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles — all of which begin in the group stage.

Korea is one of the most successful nations in badminton but has come up short in recent years, winning just one bronze medal in the sport at each of the three previous editions of the Games.

But this year’s Korean badminton squad includes a handful of world champions.

An, the highest-ranked women’s singles player on the official Badminton World Federation list, is headed to Paris for her second Olympics and is after her first Olympic medal. She qualified for the Tokyo Olympics but failed to advance past the quarterfinals, where she was knocked out by China’s Chen Yufei, the current women’s singles world No. 2.

The 22-year-old enters the Paris pool on the back of big international wins. She was the first-ever Korean to win a gold medal in women’s singles at the 2023 BWF World Championships last August and, a couple of months later, became the first Korean to win the individual women’s title at the Asian Games in nearly three decades.

An will be joined by world No. 12 Kim Ga-eun in the women’s singles event.

Also favorites to win a medal are Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee, the No. 2 seeds in the women’s doubles tournament. Lee, 30, placed fourth in women’s doubles at the Tokyo Olympics after losing the bronze-medal match to fellow Korean women’s doubles team Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong. Kim So-yeong and Kong were the only Koreans to medal in badminton in Tokyo and sit in seventh place on the BWF women’s doubles rankings.

Kang Min-hyuk and Seo Seung-jae enter the men’s doubles tournament as the No. 4 seeded team and the reigning world champions.

Seo was also in Tokyo but did not advance out of the men’s doubles group stage.

Seo is teaming up with Chae Yoo-jung for the mixed doubles event, with the two also coming off a gold medal finish at the 2023 BWF World Championships. They’ll be joined by fellow Korean mixed doubles team Kim Won-ho and Jeong Na-eun, both of whom are first-time Olympians.

Jeon Hyeok-jin is the only Korean in the men’s singles category, which has historically been Korea’s weakest badminton event. Korea has one medal in men’s singles, a silver medal from 2004.

An Se-young competes during the women's singles gold medal match at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Oct. 7, 2023. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

Badminton is played on a court with a net in the middle dividing two halves. Each half has an indicated doubles out and a singles out, with the doubles out being much wider.

The sport is played with a racket and a shuttlecock, also called a birdie.

The player serving must stand behind another line nearest to the net, and the shuttlecock must land in the opposite box in order for the serve to count.

Each match is a best-of-three series with a 21-point system for each game. If the score for a match is 20-20, there will be a deuce in play which forces either side to win by a difference of two points.

Porte de la Chapelle Arena, the venue for badminton and artistic gymnastics at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games [AFP/YONHAP]

Badminton players are not allowed to hit the shuttlecock before it crosses the net and cannot touch the net in any instance.

A player scores when an opponent fails to return a shuttlecock that goes over the net and lands in their box, or when the opponent's shot lands out of play.

Badminton requires incredible reaction time and coordination as the shuttlecock flies quickly in the air.

Korea has 20 medals in badminton, including six gold. Korea is the third most successful nation in the sport at the Olympics, falling one medal short of Indonesia.

Paris

BY MARY YANG, KEVIN CHUNG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]