Chinese record in womens' singles and doubles since 1996: (G:GOLD, S:SILVER, B:BRONZE)

Olympic 2004 WS G B
WD G S
WORLDS 2003 WS G S B
WD G S
WORLD 2001 WS G S B B
WD G S B
OLYMPIC 2000 WS G B
WD G S B
WORLD 1999 WS S B
WD G B
WORLD 1997 WS G S B B
WD G S B
OLYMPIC 1996 WS NONE
WD G B

ALL ENGLAND WS WINNER 2004, 2003, 2001,2000,1999,1998,1997
WS RUNNER UP 2004-1997
WD WINNER 2004,2003,2002,2001,2000,1998,1997,1996
WD RUNNER UP 2004-2001, 1999

UBER CUP WINNER 2004,2002,2000,1998, RU 1996

In the All England, Olympics and Worlds since 1997 china have failed to win only 2 titles and take only two runners up spots in singles, the world and AE wins and Olympic silver by Camilla and the Athens silver to Mia.

In doubles they have taken all 7 olympic and world titles in the period, plus all but two of the silvers. At the AE they have only failed to win in 1999.

Of the 14 Olympic and world finals 8 have been all chinese. Seven of the last 8 all england singles finals have been all chinese

With Camilla and Ra now retired the only player/pair to have had success against the chinese in a major is Mia Audina.

Is the only only answer to this dominance for more countries to import chinese women players ?

well, since we all know Chinese players train very very hard, plus they have huge funding behind them and with all the related supports (the Chinese government is probably supporting them like crazy), the only thing that other countries could do is to train harder and smarter!!

You have to work hard, but also work smart ;)

Sometimes good strategies as important as good skills and fitness, and I think other countries should work on that a little bit more.

I think in the european countries the basic athletic potential of the women in the sport is not sufficient, regardless of training. If you watch english womens doubles play the chinese it is like watching girls play boys, so great is the power / fitness difference.

This must be because of the small pool of girls who play competitive badminton in uk, denmark etc means few top athletes are uncovered.

More of a mystery is why indonesia and malaysia do not produce top women, they certainly have the knowledge of training and indonesia were top only ten years ago.

More of a mystery is why indonesia and malaysia do not produce top women, they certainly have the knowledge of training and indonesia were top only ten years ago.

1. Religion: Ppl told me certain religion not encourage girls to participate public events (i.e. training, competition, etc).

2. Government support: CHN's team is purely based on the national government or providence government. However, in MAS and IND, certain organization / funderation also involved in decision making process.

3. Population base: The larger the pool, the more chance you can discover top talent.

4. Development system: CHN did a great job in generation transaction. They always have older and wiser veterans to lead the team, while give time for the young guns to be mentally and physcially ready. IND's lady team clearly did not do such. After Susi, Mia's generation, you hardly see any other stars being developed.

By the way, an interesting approach would be the Prize (money) for winning in WS and WD.

Usually, WS and WD's prize isn't as great as others, plus, each country's prize for winning also varies. So, if the prize becomes bigger (more $!), I guess it could attract more people on playing when they are young, and thus, finding more and more talented players out :)

it is always quite a mystery to me too why other countries cannot produce good female players.

UK had fairly decent players in the early 90's though, Gil and Gil got to the later stages of many tournaments.

however, i think what happened was that most other nation stood still while China has made vast advancement in WD. Every few months if you start looking at the matches between Yang/Zhang and Gao/Huang, they have made improvements in many aspects of the WD game, formation, shot selection, placement, the latest JO final was a delight to watch imho.

other countries' WD (with the exception of Korea) still looks like the early 90's.

it is similar in WS. China keep improving in their speed, court coverage, shot execution, endurance. little improvements like that takes a lot of time to get to perfection but it is the little improvements that make it count in a real match.

Indonesia was doing very well up till the late 90's. They are unfortunately relying on a couple of talents, namely Susi and Mia to be the pillar of the team with little in backup. now that Susi/Mia are gone no one is there to fill the void. that is the problem with INA management as a whole though. we are now seeing the similar case in their men's team as well.