This is a really nice list, thanks for putting it up! I didn't realise the historical dominance of China in the women's competition...
no, unfortunately i think Wong Choong Han's silver medal in England in 2003 is their best men's singles World Championship medal. Looks like Park Joo Bong can barely hold all his World Championships medals in one hand...
It is interesting that one of China's most consistent ladies singles player, Gong ZhiChao, did not win a single World Championship title.
Her best chance was in WC 2001 after she won the Olympic 2000 gold medal. Sadly she lost to Gong Rui Na in SF who won the title that year.
Although considered to be the weakling of the pair, Ricky Subagja won WC twice while his legendary partner rexy only won once. Ricky Subagja once said that he had to retire early from his beloved badminton because at that time rexy had already have an offer to coach abroad. Reluctantly he let him go although they were still in the top five at the time.
How many people have managed to get two world titles in the same year? 1) Lene Koppen 2) Christian Hadinata 3) Han AiPing 4) Park Joo Bong (twice!) 5) Ge Fei 6) Kim Dong Moon 7) Gao Ling two singles specialists 5 doubles specialists
That was a little while ago. Not deserted; his wife, Eti and he came to the U.S. to start a new life.
Little correction, Tony is from Indonesia, but he holds Permanent Residence (not citizenship) of USA.
Never thought two singles World Champion players could form as World Championships Doubles winner, but Li Lingwei/Han Aiping did it in '85 ... I suppose now this would not be possible anymore, training for singles, doubles and mixed doubles are becoming more specialized.
Yeah, the training has become more specialized, the strategy is more specialized and more importantly, the level of play for each event has increased dramatically over the years. Nowadays, it is quiet difficult to play at top level (world level) on both say men doubles and mixed doubles except for a few exception (Jens Eriksen, Thomas Laybourn and Flandi Limpele). Let alone be good at single and double. I just can't imagine Lin Dan or Taufik play double.
Looking at the chart put up by cxytdn, it seems like Denmark wins the men's singles, ladies' singles, men's doubles and mixed doubles titles every 16-20 years or so. Will the trend continue? Hope not.
Despite the fact that she was the most consistent WS during her peak, her career was fairly short (4 yrs at peak?). So, pretty much the # of participates were very limited, due to the highly competitve national selection process.
