The greatest badminton players of all time: our 12

Any list of the greatest badminton players of all time is an argument, and this one is ours. We picked twelve players and pairs whose results put them beyond debate at their peak, or whose style changed how the game is played. Every title below is checked against at least one record source, and the full list is at the end. The order is roughly chronological, not a ranking.

New to the sport? Our New to badminton page has a shorter gallery of the greats alongside the history and how to start.

How we chose

Three tests, in this order. First, the big titles: Olympic medals, World Championships and the All England, which was the sport’s most important event long before the Olympics took badminton in 1992. Second, how long a player stayed at the top. Third, influence: did people start playing differently because of them?

That third test is why a list like this cannot be settled by counting. Rudy Hartono played most of his career before the World Championships existed, and the Olympics arrived after he had stopped. Counting gold medals would leave him out, which would be absurd.

We also made room for doubles. The best doubles players are as skilled as any singles star, and three of our picks made their names in pairs.

Judy Devlin Hashman (United States, then England)

Women’s singles, 1950s and 60s. Judy Devlin won the All England women’s singles ten times, more than any other woman in the tournament’s history, and added seven All England women’s doubles titles. She also won the Uber Cup three times with the United States. She later settled in England and took British citizenship, so two badminton nations can claim her.

Why she matters: ten titles at what was then the sport’s biggest event is a record nobody has come close to in the professional era.

Rudy Hartono (Indonesia)

Men’s singles, late 1960s and 70s. Hartono won the All England seven years in a row, from 1968 to 1974, and an eighth time in 1976. Nobody has won the men’s singles there more often. He was world champion in 1980 and helped Indonesia win the Thomas Cup four times.

Why he matters: he made Indonesia the country to beat, and his All England record has stood for half a century.

Park Joo-bong (Korea)

Men’s and mixed doubles, 1980s and 90s. Park won men’s doubles gold with Kim Moon-soo at Barcelona in 1992, the first Games where badminton handed out medals, and took mixed doubles silver four years later in Atlanta. He won five world titles, two in men’s doubles and three in mixed, including both doubles events in 1985 and again in 1991.

Why he matters: he is the model for the all-round doubles player, equally dangerous at the net and from the back, and he went on to coach Japan’s national team from 2004, the years in which Japan grew into a world power, with its first Thomas Cup in 2014.

Susi Susanti (Indonesia)

Women’s singles, late 1980s and 90s. Susanti won the first Olympic women’s singles title in Barcelona in 1992. On the same day, Alan Budikusuma, later her husband, won the men’s singles, and together they gave Indonesia its first Olympic gold medals in any sport. She was world champion in 1993, won the All England four times and took Olympic bronze in 1996.

Why she matters: she won the first Olympic women’s singles title ever played, and that gold made her a national figure in Indonesia.

Gao Ling (China)

Mixed and women’s doubles, 2000s. Gao won mixed doubles gold at Sydney 2000 and again at Athens 2004, both with Zhang Jun, plus a women’s doubles bronze in 2000 and silver in 2004. Four Olympic medals is the most won by any badminton player, according to Olympics.com. She was also a world champion in both women’s and mixed doubles.

Why she matters: she won at the highest level in two events at once, a workload few top players attempt today.

Zhang Ning (China)

Women’s singles, 2000s. Zhang won Olympic gold in Athens in 2004 and defended it in Beijing in 2008, beating her compatriot Xie Xingfang in the final at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win consecutive Olympic singles titles.

Why she matters: she peaked late in a sport that usually rewards youth, which should give hope to anyone who thinks they started too late.

Lin Dan (China)

Men’s singles, 2000s and 2010s. Lin won Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, five world titles between 2006 and 2013, and six All England titles. He was also part of six Thomas Cup-winning teams. He retired in July 2020, saying pain and injuries no longer allowed him to fight on with his teammates.

Why he matters: few players have a fuller set of major titles, and he is the player most often called the greatest of all time. Left-handed, explosive and hard to read, he made attacking singles look inevitable.

Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia)

Men’s singles, 2000s and 2010s. Lee reached three Olympic finals in a row, in 2008, 2012 and 2016, and won silver in all three. He spent 348 weeks as world No. 1, including 199 in a row, won the All England four times and took 69 titles in his career, according to the Badminton Association of Malaysia.

Why he matters: Lee and Lin Dan pushed each other for a decade, and Lee is the strongest case that you can be one of the greatest players ever without winning the biggest title. His speed around the court and his consistency on the tour set the standard of his era.

Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong (China)

Mixed doubles, 2010s and 2020s. Zheng and Huang were world champions in 2018, 2019 and 2022, took Olympic silver in Tokyo and then won gold in Paris in 2024, beating Korea’s Kim Won-ho and Jeong Na-eun 21-8, 21-11 in the final. Zheng retired at the end of 2024, after they won the World Tour Finals in Hangzhou.

Why they matter: they set the standard for modern mixed doubles, with Huang controlling the net and Zheng hitting from the back with a speed and accuracy few mixed pairs could live with.

Carolina Marín (Spain)

Women’s singles, 2010s and 2020s. Marín was world champion in 2014, 2015 and 2018, the first woman to win three world singles titles, and won Olympic gold in Rio in 2016, the first player from outside Asia to win the Olympic women’s singles. She won seven European titles. She suffered a serious knee injury in the Paris semi-final in 2024 and announced her retirement in March 2026.

Why she matters: she proved that a player from a country with almost no badminton tradition could beat Asia’s best, and her intensity on court became her trademark.

Tai Tzu-ying (Chinese Taipei)

Women’s singles, 2010s and 2020s. Tai spent 214 weeks as world No. 1, the longest reign in women’s singles, and won Olympic silver in Tokyo. She first reached No. 1 in December 2016 and retired in November 2025.

Why she matters: her wrist deception, the ability to show one shot and play another at the last moment, was the most copied skill on the tour. Coaches will be showing clips of her net play for years.

Viktor Axelsen (Denmark)

Men’s singles, 2010s and 2020s. Axelsen won Olympic gold in Tokyo and again in Paris, the first European to win back-to-back Olympic singles titles, after a bronze in Rio. He was world champion in 2017 and 2022 and won three European titles. Chronic back problems ended his career: he announced his retirement in April 2026, at 32.

Why he matters: two Olympic golds and a bronze make him Europe’s most successful Olympic men’s singles player. In 2022 he was close to unbeatable, finishing the year as world No. 1.

Close calls

Plenty of players could swap into this list on a different day. Kim Dong-moon of Korea won Olympic gold in mixed doubles in 1996 and in men’s doubles in 2004. Denmark’s Peter Gade was world No. 1 at the turn of the century, won the All England in 1999 and was five times European champion. India’s Prakash Padukone became the first Indian to win the All England, in 1980, and opened the door for everyone who followed from India.

Today’s stars

The current generation is still writing its case. These are the players to watch, with links to our profiles, which we keep up to date with the BWF World Ranking.

An Se-young of Korea is the closest thing to a sure bet. She won Olympic gold in Paris at 22 and is world No. 1 in women’s singles, with ten titles in 2026 so far. Her rival Akane Yamaguchi of Japan is a three-time world champion.

In men’s singles, Christo Popov became the first Frenchman to reach world No. 1 in October 2026, just ahead of Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn, who already has a world title and an Olympic medal.

In doubles, Korea’s Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae lead the men’s ranking, China’s Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning the women’s and Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping the mixed. All our profiles are on the players page.

"Greatest" is our editorial judgement, not a fact. The titles are facts. Where the two disagree, argue with the judgement, and check the record.

What to do next

Pick two players from this list with opposite styles, say Lee Chong Wei and Tai Tzu-ying, and watch a full match of each. Notice where they stand when the opponent hits, not where the shuttle goes. That is the part you can copy.

The greatest badminton players of all time