Encyclopedia of players/pairs

This post of demolidor's made me realize that I don't know anything about badminton players!

Alright, it's not that I don't know anything, but since I'm from a country where badminton is not popular at all (Romania) and I'm living in a country where badminton is somewhat more popular but still never on TV or anything like that (Austria), the most I know about the majority of the players are their names. I know the names of LCW, LD, PG, TH, of lesser known current players, or even of Joko Suprianto The problem is, I only know them from looking at the current and historical world rankings or tournament results. As far as recognizing them, I think I can only recognize LCW, LD, and Misbun Sidek in a picture. The only tournament I ever saw live was the 2011 Austrian International Challenge, and apart from that I saw some matches on YouTube, mostly from the AE.

All this being said, I would like to know more about badminton players and doubles pairs! Most of the threads in this subforum just discuss what a player is currently doing/going through/how he's playing, but they kind of assume that everyone knows who the players are. I know a lot of BC'ers know tons of stuff about historical and current players, and I think it would be a good idea to create a sort of encyclopedia of players and pairs.

Everyone can contribute one or more players, either 1) historical greats (including those who have recently retired), 2) current top national team/international players, 3) lower-tier national/international players/young hopes and hopefuls. Entries are of course welcome from both "big" and "small" badminton nations.

The info I'm looking for for each player is obviously the country/countries they're representing/have represented, personal info (when they were born, where, as far as it's available), style of play, maybe how they developed into a good player (what coach they had, what style of coaching) achievements in tournaments and what else they're known for, how they're playing currently or what they are doing currently (the latter for retired players, for example Rexy is the MAS Men's Doubles coach). The same goes for doubles pairs (players who make them up, personal info on the players if they haven't been covered already as Singles, style of play of the pair, achievements of the pair, etc.). Pictures are not only welcome, but also desired, because it helps with the recognition of players (i.e. you have a face that matches the name).

I'm curious to see if this thread can gain momentum and if we're gonna get a lot of entries. If it turns out to be popular then maybe it can be stickied. I for one am hoping for many responses so that I can learn more about badminton players and pairs, and I guess it would benefit all other badminton newbs in the same way. This way maybe we won't get tricked by the world rankings as often, because the rankings don't always paint the full picture.

Sorry for the long post. tl;dr is also an acceptable answer to this

 

I understand the idea behind splitting the forum up and having separate subforums for the "big" badminton nations and not for the different levels of players, and I think it was a good idea.

However, I was thinking of this thread as a reference thread with (short) descriptions of as many players as possible, and everyone could then consult this thread to at least get an idea of who Wong Mew Choo or Hsu Jen Hao or whoever actually is.

In retrospect, maybe it was a bad idea, but I had nothing to do this morning and thought about writing a really long post

 

So true. I use Wikipedia for almost anything, but they seem to be trailing in the badminton department

 

I'll try to read as much as possible before classes start next week and I won't have so much free time