Does anybody know what happened to Hwang Sun Ai who won the All England Ladies' singles in 1981? This, as far as I know, is her only major international title??
Wow, you're really going back there. She won the Japan Open the same year. She was third in doubles in the 1983 Denmark Open. She coaches badminton at a middle school in Daejeon now.
Kinda funny to see Marlboro sponsoring badminton back then. Promoting smoking (in 1984) is good for badminton..... I know couple players that smokes and can't last 5 points in a single game..... AIR....AIR....AIR...AIR....AIR.....FAINT!
Thanks for your reply.....it does seem strange thyough: All England and Japan Open in 1981 and then NOTHING?? Surely this must be one of the shortest careers in badminton history?
Sorry, the records to which I have access are far from comprehensive. The KBA website has her career cross-referenced so no competition history comes up. Very strange. I mean, this is the photo that comes up. Does this look right? IBF records probably weren't kept then so their website has nothing even though they do have records for stars from the 90's. It says she was born in '62 so she would have been well past the prime for Korean women players, especially at that time. Remember that Bang Su-hyun retired at age 24 from international play. At least neither KBA nor IBF have any record of her in a tournament after Atlanta. I don't think Korea had much of a badminton program in those days. I heard that the government started to invest in the late 70s sometime. I don't know how that relates to her personal development but maybe she was this amazing player and until Korea got richer or other players like Park Joo Bong started to show promise too, maybe Korea didn't bother sending players to international tournaments. I don't know.
well, it's not surprising since there is also Djarum Indonesian Open...guess who is the sponsor??..hehe
Is it still allowed? The reason why there was more Ba. on TV in 80s and 90s was because of the support of cigarette and beer cos. Now most govs do not allow them to advertise let alone sponsor sports.
Hwang suffered a serious injury after AE in 1981. aftet that she could only play Doubles. Park first appeared in int.tours in 1982. True Hwang was first Korean to make an impact internationally. Last heard of Hwang was when legenderay Wong Peng Soon wanted to prove he cant lose to women and was supposed to challenge her in Singapore but suffered a heart attack during training and match was aborted. Anybody interested in her exploits in 1981 AE?
So any idea why she peaked so late? Assuming the KBA records are correct, she was 29 in 1981. My guess was that she wasn't playing internationally before '81. This sounds plausible but it is only a theory. It seems more likely than that she had been playing since 1972 and just not winning anything. I was thinking that if Park was one of a new breed of young players at that time then maybe these players were beginning to be sent abroad for tournaments in '81 or so. Hwang, as the senior player, would naturally go along. Park starts winning a year later. This is all pure conjecture. Bbn, do you remember any of this? I'm intrigued, now. If I meet her someday, maybe I'll ask her. Maybe I should try asking her for an interview.
I cant find any records of Koreans in Internationals b4 1981. I remember it was some progran to win Olympic Medals in 1988 in Seoul.
Dont remember any Koreans in internationals b4 1981. Maybe it was apla to secure more medals for 88 Olympics or Asian Games.
------------------------------------------------- On record she won Swedish Open 1981 and runner-up to Japan's Saori Kondo in 1981 Danish Open.
Has anybody heard the rumour that Sun Ai Hwang was male when she was born but undergone a s.e.x. operation and became female? This is because she disposed of the legendary Danish Lene Koppen in the AE finals easily (and everyone else at AE 1981). Rumour also has it that because of the s.e.x. operation IBF told Sun Ai Hwang if she stopped competing in international tournaments IBF won't expose the s.e.x. operation to the press.
All very interesting though the IBF theory sounds a little farfetched..... Where do you guys come up with all those statistics? Where can I find such information as: who won the Japan Open men's singles 1981, World CUp 1974 etc? Bbn: Can you help me with dvds of games with HArtono, Tjun Tjun, LS King?
I don't know of any central repository for results like that. I got the Japan Open results from 1981 only from a document on the history of Korean badminton and it was only there because that was the first big tournament win by any Korean in history.
Winner of JOpen in 1881 was Rudy Hartono beating Luis Ponggoh ( The fat guy on coaching bench in Thomas Cup), this is from ITNarchives site.
Maybe you misunderstood me. The document I found had only Korean results and it only had the 1980 Japan Open results because Hwang won. Apart from that and the All England, I can find no other 1981 results... ..except...apparently Rudy Hartono won the Japan Open in 1981. Again, that hit is from a blind Google search. I have no idea where the historical list might be. The Korean Open website might have a complete list of champions but I'm not sure.