Badminton is the World’s No. 1 racket sport, and approximately 2 million people play in the UK on a regular basis. Badminton is a racket sport played by either two opposing players (singles) or two opposing pairs (doubles). Players or pairs take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Unlike many racket sports, badminton does not use a ball: badminton uses a feathered projectile known as a shuttlecock.
Badminton became an Olympic sport at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Only the 32 highest ranked badminton players in the world can participate in the competition, and each country can only submit three players to take part. In the IBF World Championships, only the highest ranked 64 players in the world, and a maximum of three from each country, can participate in any category.