BWF World Championships

Official logo until 2006

The BWF World Championships (formerly known as IBF World Championships, also known as the World Badminton Championships) is a tournament organized by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) to crown the best badminton players in the world.

The tournament started in 1977 and was held once every three years until 1983. However, the IBF faced difficulty in hosting the first two events as the World Badminton Federation (which later merged with the IBF to form one badminton federation) hosted the same tournament a year after the IBF World Championships with the same goals.

Started 1985, the tournament became bi-annual and played once every two years until 2005. Starting 2006, the tournament was changed to an annual event on the BWF calendar with the goal to give more chances for the players to be crowned as official "World Champions".

However, the tournament will not be held once every four years to give way to the Olympic Games.

Location of the World Championships

The table below gives an overview of all host cities and countries of the World Championships. These include Paris and London which are yet to hold their games.

The number in parentheses following the city/country denotes how many times that city/country has hosted the championships.

From 1989 to 2001 the world championships were held immediately after the Sudirman Cup at the same location.

     Countries that already hosted the Championships
     Countries that will host the Championships

Year No. Host City Country 1977 I Malmö (1)  Sweden (1) 1980 II Jakarta (1)  Indonesia (1) 1983 III Copenhagen (1)  Denmark (1) 1985 IV Calgary (1)  Canada (1) 1987 V Beijing (1)  China (1) 1989 VI Jakarta (2)  Indonesia (2) 1991 VII Copenhagen (2)  Denmark (2) 1993 VIII Birmingham (1)  England (1) 1995 IX Lausanne (1)  Switzerland (1) 1997 X Glasgow (1)  Scotland (1)

Year No. Host City Country 1999 XI Copenhagen (3)  Denmark (3) 2001 XII Seville (1)  Spain (1) 2003 XIII Birmingham (2)  England (2) 2005 XIV Anaheim (1)  United States (1) 2006 XV Madrid (1)  Spain (2) 2007 XVI Kuala Lumpur (1)  Malaysia (1) 2009 XVII Hyderabad (1)  India (1) 2010 XVIII Paris (1)  France (1) 2011 XIX London (1)  England (3)

Future events:

• On December 17, 2006, Paris was awarded the 2010 Championships.^[1]
• On December 15, 2007, London was awarded the 2011 Championships.^[2]

Past winners

The map shown the countries which at least achieve a bronze medal during the tournament

So far, only 17 countries have achieved at least a bronze medal in the tournament: nine in Asia, five in Europe, one in North American, South America, and Oceania. Africa is the only continent that has not won a medal.

Successful players & national teams

Successful players

Several players have won gold medals in more than one category in a single holding of the World Championships, this include

1. Lene Køppen, 1977, mixed doubles and women's singles
2. Christian Hadinata, 1980, men's doubles and mixed doubles
3. Park Joo-bong, 1985, men's doubles and mixed doubles, 1991, men's doubles and mixed doubles
4. Han Aiping, 1985, women's singles and doubles
5. Ge Fei, 1997, women's doubles and mixed doubles
6. Kim Dong-moon, 1999, men's doubles and mixed doubles
7. Gao Ling, 2001, women's doubles and mixed doubles

From 1977 up to 2001, the medals were usually divided among five countries namely China, Korea, Denmark, Indonesia, Malaysia. However, in 2003, the winners included seven countries and in 2005 the medal board contained a record high of ten countries.

Tony Gunawan also bears the distinction of winning a gold medal in Men's Doubles, representing two different countries, 2001 partnering with Halim Haryanto for Indonesia and in 2005 partnering with Howard Bach to give the United States its first medal in the competition.

The 2005 edition also brought new faces in the mixed doubles event which had been dominated by China and Korea since 1997. With the retirement of defending champions and two time winners Kim Dong-moon/Ra Kyung-min (Korea), Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir won Indonesia's first mixed doubles gold since 1980 when Christian Hadinata/Imelda Wijuno won it last for Indonesia.

Below is the list of the most ever successful players, since 3 gold medals.^[3]

Player	MS	WS	MD	WD	XD	Total
Park Joo-bong			2		3	5
Gao Ling				3	1	4
Han Aiping		2		1		3
Li Lingwei		2		1		3
Lin Ying				3		3
Guan Weizhen				3		3
Ge Fei				2	1	3
Kim Dong-moon			1		2	3
Huang Sui				3		3

Successful national teams

Below is the gold medalists shown based by category and countries after the 2007 BWF World Championships.

China has been the most successful in the World Championships ever since its inception in 1977. They were the only country ever to achieve a shutout of the medals which they did in 1987 in Beijing. They are followed by Indonesia and Korea with Denmark being the leading European country in the winners list.

Country	77	80	83	85	87	89	91	93	95	97	99	01	03	05	06	07	09	Total
China			2	3	5	4	3	1	1	3	21	3	3	22	4	3	4	43
Indonesia	1	4	1					3	2	1		2		22		2		18
Denmark	3		1					1	1	1	1		1				1	10
Korea				2		1	2		1		21		1					9
England		1	1												1			3
Sweden			1					1										2
Japan	1																	1
United States														1				1

BOLD means overall winner of that World Championships

Note 1: China and Korea are tied with two gold medals. However, Korea won two silver medals and China won none, thus Korea became the overall winner.
Note 2: China won on superior of silver medal of four silver medals to Indonesia one, thus, China became overall winner.

Men's singles

Country	77	80	83	85	87	89	91	93	95	97	99	01	03	05	06	07	09	Total
China				X	X	X	X				X		X		X	X	X	9
Indonesia		X	X					X	X			X		X				6
Denmark	X									X								2

Women's singles

Country	77	80	83	85	87	89	91	93	95	97	99	01	03	05	06	07	09	Total
China			X	X	X	X	X		X	X		X	X	X	X	X	X	13
Indonesia		X						X										2
Denmark	X										X							2

Men's doubles

Country	77	80	83	85	87	89	91	93	95	97	99	01	03	05	06	07	09	Total
Indonesia	X	X						X	X	X		X				X		7
China					X	X									X		X	4
Korea				X			X				X							3
Denmark			X										X					2
United States														X				1

Women's doubles

Country	77	80	83	85	87	89	91	93	95	97	99	01	03	05	06	07	09	Total
China			X	X	X	X	X	X		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	14
Japan	X																	1
England		X																1
Korea									X									1

Mixed doubles

Country	77	80	83	85	87	89	91	93	95	97	99	01	03	05	06	07	09	Total
Korea				X		X	X				X		X					5
Denmark	X							X	X								X	4
China					X					X		X						3
Indonesia		X												X		X		3
Sweden			X					X										2
England			X												X			2

References

External links

• BWF: World Championships

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