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BWF World Championships

Badminton tournament

BWF World Championships

Current season, competition or edition: 2023 BWF World Championships
Sport	Badminton
Founded	1977; 47 years ago (1977)
Country	BWF member nations

The BWF World Championships, formerly known as IBF World Championships, and also known as the World Badminton Championships, is a badminton tournament sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). The tournament is one of the most prestigious in badminton, offering the most ranking points, together with the Summer Olympics badminton tournaments which was introduced in 1992.^[1][2] The winners of this tournament are also crowned as "World Champions" of the sport, and are awarded a gold medal.^[3]

The tournament started in 1977 and was held once every three years until 1983. However, the IBF (International Badminton Federation) 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.

Since 1985, the tournament became biennial and played once every two years until 2005. Starting 2006, the tournament was changed to an annual event on the BWF calendar. The tournament is not held during the Summer Olympics years to avoid schedule conflicts.

Location of the World Championships[edit]

The table below gives an overview of all host cities and countries of the World Championships. The most recent games were held in Copenhagen. The number in parentheses following the city/country denotes how many times that city/country has hosted the championships. From 1989to2001 the world championships were held immediately after the Sudirman Cup at the same location.

1980, 1989, 2015

1977

1985

Past winners[edit]

As of 2022, only 21 countries have achieved at least a bronze medal in the tournament: 11 from Asia, eight from Europe, and one each from Oceania and North America. Africa is the only confederation that has not won a medal.

At the age of 18, Ratchanok Inthanon became the youngest winner of a singles title at the Championships.^[4] Ratchanok was less than 3 months older than Jang Hye-ock was when she won the women's doubles title at the 1995 Championships.^[5]

Most successful players & national teams[edit]

Most successful players[edit]

Several players have won gold medals in more than one category in a World Championship; this includes:

• Lene Køppen, 1977, mixed doubles and women's singles
• Christian Hadinata, 1980, men's doubles and mixed doubles
• Park Joo-bong, 1985 & 1991, men's doubles and mixed doubles
• Han Aiping, 1985, women's singles and doubles
• Ge Fei, 1997, women's doubles and mixed doubles
• Kim Dong-moon, 1999, men's doubles and mixed doubles
• Gao Ling, 2001, women's doubles and mixed doubles
• Zhao Yunlei, 2014 & 2015, women's doubles and mixed doubles
• Seo Seung-jae, 2023, men'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 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 to 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/Liliyana Natsir won Indonesia's first mixed doubles gold since 1980 when Christian Hadinata/Imelda Wiguna won it last for Indonesia.

Below is the list of the most successful players ever, with 3 or more gold medals.

Rank	Player	MS	WS	MD	WD	XD	Total
1	Lin Dan	5					5
	Zhao Yunlei				2	3	5
	Park Joo-bong			2		3	5
4	Cai Yun			4			4
	Chen Qingchen				4		4
	Fu Haifeng			4			4
	Gao Ling				3	1	4
	Jia Yifan				4		4
	Zhang Nan			1		3	4
	Liliyana Natsir					4	4
	Hendra Setiawan			4			4
12	Ge Fei				2	1	3
	Guan Weizhen				3		3
	Han Aiping		2		1		3
	Huang Sui				3		3
	Huang Yaqiong					3	3
	Li Lingwei		2		1		3
	Lin Ying				3		3
	Yu Yang				3		3
	Zheng Siwei					3	3
	Mohammad Ahsan			3			3
	Kim Dong-moon			1		2	3
	Carolina Marín		3				3

Below is the list of the most successful player(s) in each category (listed according to their last title):

Category	Player	Total	Year
MS	Lin Dan	5	2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013
WS	Carolina Marín	3	2014, 2015, 2018
MD	Cai Yun	4	2006, 2009, 2010, 2011 (with Fu Haifeng)
	Fu Haifeng	4	2006, 2009, 2010, 2011 (with Cai Yun)
	Hendra Setiawan	4	2007 (with Markis Kido), 2013, 2015, 2019 (with Mohammad Ahsan)
WD	Chen Qingchen	4	2017, 2021, 2022, 2023 (with Jia Yifan)
	Jia Yifan	4	2017, 2021, 2022, 2023 (with Chen Qingchen)
XD	Liliyana Natsir	4	2005, 2007 (with Nova Widianto), 2013, 2017 (with Tontowi Ahmad)

MS: Men's singles; WS: Women's singles; MD: Men's doubles; WD: Women's doubles; XD: Mixed doubles

Most successful national teams[edit]

Below is the gold medalists shown based by category and countries after the 2023 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, 2010 and 2011.

BOLD means overall winner of that World Championships

Rank	Nation	77	80	83	85	87	89	91	93	95	97	99	01	03	05	06	07	09	10	11	13	14	15	17	18	19	21	22	23	Total
1	China			2	3	5	4	3	1	1	3	21	3	3	22	4	3	4	5	5	23	3	3	2	24	1	1	2	1	70
2	Indonesia	1	4	1					3	2	1		2		22		2				23		1	1		1				23
3	South Korea				2		1	2		1		21		1								1							3	13
4	Denmark	3		1					0.5	1	1	1		1				1						1				1		11.5
5	Japan	1																						1	24	2	2	1		9
6	Spain																					1	1		1					3
	Thailand																				1						1		1	3
8	England		1	0.5												1														2.5
9	India																									1				1
	Malaysia																											1		1
	Singapore																										1			1
	Sweden			0.5					0.5																					1
	United States														1															1

Championship per countries[edit]

Men's singles[edit]

Rank	Nation	77	80	83	85	87	89	91	93	95	97	99	01	03	05	06	07	09	10	11	13	14	15	17	18	19	21	22	23	Total
1	China				X	X	X	X				X		X		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X							14
2	Indonesia		X	X					X	X			X		X															6
3	Denmark	X									X													X				X		4
4	Japan																								X	X				2
5	Singapore																										X			1
	Thailand																												X	1

Women's singles[edit]

Rank	Nation	77	80	83	85	87	89	91	93	95	97	99	01	03	05	06	07	09	10	11	13	14	15	17	18	19	21	22	23	Total
1	China			X	X	X	X	X		X	X		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X										15
2	Japan																							X			X	X		3
	Spain																					X	X		X					3
4	Denmark	X										X																		2
	Indonesia		X						X																					2
6	India																									X				1
	Thailand																				X									1
	South Korea																												X	1

Men's doubles[edit]

Rank	Nation	77	80	83	85	87	89	91	93	95	97	99	01	03	05	06	07	09	10	11	13	14	15	17	18	19	21	22	23	Total
1	Indonesia	X	X						X	X	X		X				X				X		X			X				10
2	China					X	X									X		X	X	X				X	X					8
3	South Korea				X			X				X										X							X	5
4	Denmark			X										X																2
5	Japan																										X			1
	Malaysia																											X		1
	United States														X															1

Women's doubles[edit]

Rank	Nation	77	80	83	85	87	89	91	93	95	97	99	01	03	05	06	07	09	10	11	13	14	15	17	18	19	21	22	23	Total
1	China			X	X	X	X	X	X		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X			X	X	X	23
2	Japan	X																							X	X				3
3	England		X																											1
	South Korea									X																				1

Mixed doubles[edit]

Rank	Nation	77	80	83	85	87	89	91	93	95	97	99	01	03	05	06	07	09	10	11	13	14	15	17	18	19	21	22	23	Total
1	China					X					X		X						X	X		X	X		X	X		X		10
2	South Korea				X		X	X				X		X															X	6
3	Indonesia		X												X		X				X			X						5
4	Denmark	X							/	X								X												3.5
5	England			/												X														1.5
6	Sweden			\					\																					1
	Thailand																										X			1

Medal table[edit]

As of the 2023 edition, does not include one stripped silver medal from 2014^[6]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	70	49	83	202
2	Indonesia	23	20	37	80
3	South Korea	13	15	33	61
4	Denmark	11.5	15	41	67.5
5	Japan	9	9	21	39
6	Thailand	3	2	5	10
7	Spain	3	1	0	4
8	England	2.5	8.5	13	24
9	Malaysia	1	8	14	23
10	India	1	4	9	14
11	Sweden	1	2	5	8
12	Singapore	1	0	0	1
	United States	1	0	0	1
14	Chinese Taipei	0	3	6	9
15	Hong Kong	0	1	3	4
16	Netherlands	0	1	1	2
17	Scotland	0	0.5	1	1.5
18	Germany	0	0	5	5
19	France	0	0	1	1
	New Zealand	0	0	1	1
	Vietnam	0	0	1	1
Totals (21 entries)		140	139	280	559

Medal distribution[edit]

Men's singles[edit]

As of the 2023 edition

Due to the disqualification on suspicion of violation of anti-doping regulations, the 2014 silver medalist Lee Chong Wei was stripped of his medal and thus the medal count does not add up.^[6]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	14	6	14	34
2	Indonesia	6	7	13	26
3	Denmark	4	5	14	23
4	Japan	2	1	1	4
5	Thailand	1	1	1	3
6	Singapore	1	0	0	1
7	Malaysia	0	4	2	6
8	India	0	1	4	5
	South Korea	0	1	4	5
10	Chinese Taipei	0	1	1	2
11	Sweden	0	0	1	1
	Vietnam	0	0	1	1
Totals (12 entries)		28	27	56	111

Women's singles[edit]

As of the 2023 edition

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	15	16	25	56
2	Japan	3	1	4	8
3	Spain	3	1	0	4
4	Indonesia	2	2	5	9
5	Denmark	2	0	3	5
6	India	1	3	3	7
7	South Korea	1	1	5	7
8	Thailand	1	0	1	2
9	Chinese Taipei	0	2	2	4
10	England	0	1	2	3
11	Hong Kong	0	1	0	1
12	Germany	0	0	4	4
13	France	0	0	1	1
	Netherlands	0	0	1	1
Totals (14 entries)		28	28	56	112

Men's doubles[edit]

As of the 2023 edition

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Indonesia	10	6	10	26
2	China	8	4	11	23
3	South Korea	5	6	8	19
4	Denmark	2	4	7	13
5	Malaysia	1	4	11	16
6	Japan	1	2	3	6
7	United States	1	0	0	1
8	England	0	2	2	4
9	Sweden	0	0	2	2
10	Chinese Taipei	0	0	1	1
	India	0	0	1	1
Totals (11 entries)		28	28	56	112

Women's doubles[edit]

As of the 2023 edition

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	23	13	16	52
2	Japan	3	3	10	16
3	South Korea	1	5	12	18
4	England	1	1	3	5
5	Indonesia	0	3	4	7
6	Denmark	0	1	7	8
7	Sweden	0	1	1	2
8	Netherlands	0	1	0	1
9	Chinese Taipei	0	0	1	1
	India	0	0	1	1
	Thailand	0	0	1	1
Totals (11 entries)		28	28	56	112

Mixed doubles[edit]

As of the 2023 edition

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	10	10	17	37
2	South Korea	6	2	4	12
3	Indonesia	5	2	5	12
4	Denmark	3.5	5	10	18.5
5	England	1.5	4.5	6	12
6	Thailand	1	1	2	4
7	Sweden	1	1	1	3
8	Japan	0	2	3	5
9	Scotland	0	0.5	1	1.5
10	Hong Kong	0	0	3	3
11	Chinese Taipei	0	0	1	1
	Germany	0	0	1	1
	Malaysia	0	0	1	1
	New Zealand	0	0	1	1
Totals (14 entries)		28	28	56	112