The Australian Badminton Team's perfomance have definitely declined rapidly for the past decade. I did a big of 'digging' on badminton at the commonwealth games, and was pretty surprised. Australia is ranked 5th, in terms of all time medal table collection, with 2 golds, 1 silver and 7 bronze, beating countries such as singapore and hong kong. The golds were won by Lisa Campbell in WS and Mike Scandolera/Audrey Tucker in XD. What is disappointing is i couldn;t find much info on them on the net They should be recognized for their contribution for the Australian Badminton. resources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badminton_at_the_Commonwealth_Games any aussies in here? please leave your comment
Australia will never dominate in badminton. They are too busy with other sports and think badminton is a girly sport.
Lol i know they never will, but if they could repeat their success in the commonwealth, thats good enough. i dont expect them to win medals in olympis, but if they did in the past, why not now.
badminton just doesn't have the funding in Australia unfortunately. The talent is here...but students also have to balance their studies or jobs with training and cannot commit all their time to it
The main reasons are because of the lack of commitment from people & support from the governemnt. Firstly, our coaches here are not as good as those in Asia. Secondly, It's very different from other countries like China. China badminton team is supported by the government & instead of going to school, they spend their everyday lives physically exercising & training. We, do not have that. Least we have state teams with many talented juniors, but I think badminton can be more popular & played if only we had more sponsorships & support.
theres really some good players at school level, but yea like Heong pointed out, lack of commitment and funding towards the sports. Badminton wasnt even taken seriously at my school, they cancelled the badminton training without telling the players and when we got there, we were told about it cuz of some basketball training. i was pretty pissed >.<
Unfortunately, I feel that Badminton in Australia suffers because to be an elite athlete in badminton is not seen as a career or life choice. Most players in Australia who are seriuos about badminton either go overseas, or are forced to deal with having to study and achieve a career that can support their sporting goals, which in turn affects the outcomes able to be produced. In order for badminton to be recognised, there would have to be some sort of messiah... a really good player who could achieve a medal etc without the coaching/training at the intense level that occurs overseas. Then perhaps the gvnmnt would take badminton seriously, and funding would be increased to allow development of world-standard players. I remember once watching a documentary on Peter Blackburn.. and it showed how difficult it was for a badminton player in Australia. my 2c
