Badminton

An ancient game, badminton achieved a large boost as a competitive sport for most athletic venues after its inclusion in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. For the first time, badminton competitors could compete for Olympic medals. However, competitors of all ages enjoy badminton, an activity for simple recreation or a competition for athletes of the highest caliber.

Badminton may have started in China, five hundred years before the birth of Christ. Ti Jian Zi consisted of kicking the shuttlecock without the use of racquets. Five hundred years later, the game was played with a battledore (a flat paddle or bat) in China, Japan, India and Greece.

India called the game ‘Poona,’ and in the 1800¹s it became popular with English officers who brought the game to England in the 1870¹s. Originally known as ‘Battledore and Shuttlecock,’ the game became known as badminton when the Duke of Beaufort started the first club at his country estate, ‘Badminton House.’ A game for “high society,” one can see the legacy of this influence at the Vancouver Lawn Tennis and Badminton Club, the Calgary Winter Club or Glencoe Club, and the Edmonton Royal Glenora. Each of these clubs has a strict dress code: white shorts, white socks, white tops and shoes.

In 1934, the International Badminton Federation (IBF)was formed with nine members: Canada, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. Membership grew steadily throughout the years and in 1981, the IBF became the sport's sole international governing body.

Badminton became popular in the interior of British Columbia when it was introduced in Vernon in 1907, Kelowna in 1910, Nelson in 1922, and Trail in 1932. The Kootenays have had many athletes participating in high-level competitions, with Cranbrook having its share of accomplished badminton players throughout the decades. Cranbrook has had an active badminton club for many years and continues to enjoy popular support at the community and school levels. Of course dress codes are relaxed in these settings.

The badminton venue for the Kimberley-Cranbrook 2008 B.C. Winter Games will be College of the Rockies in Cranbrook, Ten officials, eighty athletes (12 14 male and female) and sixteen coaches.

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