Badminton —Olympics: Badminton is a racquet sport where a shuttlecock made of feathers is used as the projectile. Badminton is an indoor game. Contemporary badminton first appeared in the middle of the19th century . The game evolved from the game battledore and shuttlecock , which can be traced back to ancient Greece, China, Japan and India . Badminton is played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs . Badminton has been categorized on the basis of the number of players involved in the game. When two players play badminton , the match is called “ singles ”. When two pairs of players play opposite to each other, the match is called “ doubles ”. The rectangular court for badminton is divided into two halves by a net. Players or pairs take positions on the opposite sides of the net.
Badminton in the Summer Games: Recently, badminton has become a popular sport in Asia and Europe . Badminton made its first appearance in the Summer Games in 1992 . Since then for 4 Olympiads it has been included in the Olympics ' program. 50 different nations have participated in the Olympic badminton competitions . 19 countries have taken part in all the 4 times
Badminton at the 2008 Summer Games: At the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing , badminton is going to be held for three days from 15 th August to 17 th August . The events will be held at Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium in the Beijing University of Technology, Chaoyang District . Number of gold medals in contention for the events is five . The five categories in the badminton competition will be men's singles, men's doubles, women's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles .
Taufik Hidayat, Shon Seung-mo, Sony Dwi Kuncoro, Kim Dong-moon, Ha Tae-Kwon, Zhang Jun, Nathan James Robertson and Jens Eriksen are the top male contenders in the Beijing Summer Games . Among women, Zhang Ning, Zhou Mi, Zhang Jiewen, Yang Wei, Huang Sui, Gao Ling, Gail Elizabeth Emms and Mette Schjoldager are some expected contenders.
