Badminton probably originated in India as a grownup's version of a very old children's game known in England as battledore and shuttlecock, the battledore being a paddle and the shuttlecock a small feathered cork, now usually balled a "bird."
Played for centuries by children in India, Siam, and Japan, this was a cooperative game in which the players worked together to keep the "bird" in the air for as long as possible.
A net was added and the game had become a competitive sport called "poona" by the 1860s, when British Army officers were playing it in India. Some of them brought equipment back to England and introduced the new sport there during the early 1870s.
It was played at a lawn party held by Duke of Beaufort at his country place, Badminton, in 1873, and it became known as "the Badminton game" among various guests who introduced it to other friends.
The Bath Badminton Club, organized in 1877, developed the first written rules, which have remained essentially the same. In 1893, the Badminton Association of England was founded as the first national governing body and the first All-England championship was held in 1899.
The Badminton Club of New York was organized in 1878, but it was primarily a social club. The Badminton Health Club of Boston, founded in 1908, devoted more time to the sport and grew to more than 300 members by 1925. But badminton didn't become genuinely popular in the U. S. until the 1930s.
In 1935, the American Badminton Association (ABA) was founded and it conducted the first national championship tournament on April 1, 1937.
The International Badminton Federation, founded in 1934, planned to hold the first world championship tournament in 1939, but it was canceled because of World War II and didn't take place until 1949. World individual championships are now held in odd-numbered years, team championships in even-numbered years.
Badminton was staged as a demonstration sport at the 1972 Olympics and it was added to the Olympic program in 1992 with singles and doubles competition for men and women. The mixed doubles event was added in 1996. Badminton also became a Pan-American Games sport in 1995.
The ABA was renamed the U. S. Badminton Association in 1978. In 1989, the organization became a full-fledged member of the U. S. Olympic Committee. It has about 2,700 members, but more than 1 million Americans play badminton recreationally at least 25 times a year, according to a recent study.
American players were among the world's best until the late 1960s. Perhaps the greatest of all was Judy Devlin Hashman, a native of Manitoba. She won more than 50 major championships from 1954 through 1967, including 12 U. S. national titles and 10 All-England championships.
In recent years the best players have come from Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Korea, and from the Scandinavian countries, especially Denmark and Finland. However, with help from USOC funding, the USBA has launched a major development program aimed at producing an Olympic medalist by 2004.
Badminton became a professional sport in the 1980s, when the IBF established the World Grand Prix Circuit. The U. S. Open, which offers $200,000 in prize money, is the highest paying tournament on the tour. The Grand Prix Finals tournament has a total purse of $350,000.
