Badminton-Like fine wine, elite shuttlers getting better with age

PARIS - Gone are the days when badminton players could enjoy a cheeky smoke between games or quench their thirst with a fizzy drink.

The pay-off? - longer careers, bigger pay cheques and second chances their predecessors did not have after serious injuries.

Elite badminton takes a brutal toll on the body because shuttlers are constantly shifting posture and making lightning fast movements, risking joint and tendon injuries.

From Spain's 31-year-old Carolina Marin to Taiwan's Tai Tzu Ying, 30, and Denmark's 27-year-old Anders Antonsen, experienced badminton players have a shot at World Championship and Olympic glory despite a never-ending catalogue of injuries.

Marin tore her anterior cruciate ligament after winning Rio Games gold, Tai has suffered persistent knee problems and Antonsen injured his groin last year, but all three are at the Paris Olympics.

Japan's Kento Momota retired in part due to his injuries, but not before representing Japan in Tokyo despite a car crash that left him needing surgery on a bone near his eye.

Players, especially women, used to retire younger because they did not earn as much as they do now, said Thomas Lund, Danish Olympian, former world champion and secretary general of the sport's world federation (BWF).

Better eating habits, training, more injury prevention and healthcare awareness are also contributing to longer careers, he added.

The mean age of the top 100 male players rose to about 26 in 2020 from around 23-1/2 in 1994, according to a 2021 study by authors including Spain's Pablo Abian, who is making his fifth Olympics appearance in Paris aged 39 and is also an academic.

For women, the mean age rose to nearly 25 from just under 23 over the same period.

GOOD RESULTS

"Older players - over 35 - are having very good results. It also comes because they have more sponsorship, more quality of materials," Abian told Reuters referring to resources available.

"I feel very good. I came here to fight and I feel positive I'm going to have a good time."

At Olympic level the difference is more obvious.

When badminton became an Olympic sport at Barcelona 1992, the average age of the men's singles medal winners was 23 but at the Tokyo Games in 2021 it was 28.

Women singles medal winners at Barcelona were 22 on average, while in Tokyo they were 25.

The top three men's singles players -- China's Shi Yuqi, Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and Indonesia's Jonatan Christie -- are 28, 30 and 26 respectively.

Top women's player An Se-young of South Korea is 22, but second-ranked Chen Yufei of China is 26 and third-ranked Tai 30.

"The lifespan of a (badminton) player has increased until about 33 ... ," said U Vimal Kumar, the India men's coach.

"In tennis, they can play at a high level until up to the age of 40. In badminton that's not possible as the speed reflexes required come down considerably after 33-35." REUTERS