A major milestone in badmintons history, Barcelona 1992 saw the sports debut at the Olympic Games with 178 players from 37 countries taking part in their first Olympic badminton event.
Badminton had to wait many years and overcome a major schism in the sport before making its Olympic debut. It had been a Demonstration Sport in Munich in 1972 and badminton had a one-day exhibition in Seoul in 1988.
Almost everyone understood that this was as important as any moment since the international governing body was created 58 years earlier. But few expected the colossal success it became.
Not only did badminton make history, it did so with a unique media impact and a high profile romance between the singles winners. Indonesia gained its first Olympic champion in any sport after 40 years of trying, and Malaysia gained its first Olympic medal. The extension of success to new areas of the globe was just what the IOC had hoped badminton could provide.
Badminton’s 1992 Olympic debut gave it a great new status, raised its profile to dramatic new heights, and prepared it with perfect timing for revolutionary new communications which were about to transform the world.
It was an optimistic but slightly anxious leap into the future, though in a very short time it became more successful than anyone could have dared hope it would be.
A curtain-raising women’s doubles match became a stunner. Gill Clark and Julie Bradbury’s encounter with Rosiana Tendean and Erma Sulistianingsih had so many thrilling ups and downs that it generated a bigger worldwide television audience than any other sport. Even the excitement of this narrowest of wins by the British pair over the Indonesians mattered less than the chain reaction which it set off, in which badminton achieved the largest TV audiences for the first five days of the Games.
Finals day promoted badminton in other ways. It brought the first Olympic gold medal of any kind for the world’s fourth most populous nation, Indonesia. And it highlighted one of the great sporting romances, the women’s and men’s singles winners, Susi Susanti and Allan Budi Kusuma, who were an engaged couple and soon to be married.
Badminton also appeared different from a lot of other sports, many of which were Anglo - or Euro-centric. Its special aesthetic and athletic qualities translated well enough to the smaller screens of television to create an appeal in parts of the globe where it had not often been seen.
This enhanced badminton’s already growing reputation with the International Olympic Committee. Within two years Craig Reedie, the chief navigator of its entry into the Games, became a member of the IOC, and later became an IOC Vice President.
The ambience from the start was magical in Barcelona. A flaming arrow at the opening ceremony soared across the night sky, igniting a giant torch, and badminton too caught light amidst an intoxicating mixture of theatre, companionship, and compelling entertainment inside a purpose-built Pavello de la Mar Bella.
Given that the singles front-runners included two dynamic and charismatic world champions, the explosive lefthander Zhao Jian-Hua and the physically powerful Tang Jiu-Hong, China’s lack of a gold medal was particularly surprising.
However Zhao was tenaciously outmanoeuvred in the men’s singles in three games by Hermawan Susanto, a neat and mobile little Indonesian, and Tang was outplayed in the women’s by Bang Soo-Hyun, the talented Korean.
The men’s singles also saw Ardy Wiranata, Indonesia’s dashing winner of the 1991 World Cup, prove a little too speedy for Poul-Erik Høyer, Denmark’s elegantly enterprising European champion. But it was another Indonesian, the smoothly attacking Kusuma, whom few had tipped as an Olympic champion, who increasingly caught the eye.
First he survived a tight semi-final against Thomas Stuer-Lauridsen, a tall Dane who became Europe’s only medallist; then Kusuma triumphed 15-12, 18-13 in a highly-charged final against Wiranata.
Wiranata had lost training time because of an injury during preparation, which may have become a factor during a demanding 45-minute, second game. There were ten changes of serve at 10-11, with Kusuma often forcing Wiranata wide to the backhand before switching the attack effectively to the forehand. Afterwards in the press conference Wiranata was still in physical difficulties and was only able to continue with assistance.
Kusuma’s success had perfect dramatic timing, for it came just two hours after his fiancée, Susi Susanti, had become their country’s first Olympic champion in any sport. No wonder he played like a man inspired.
Bang had often looked good enough to win the women’s singles, and looked better still after she captured the first game of the final impressively. But no player’s movement was as light and economical as that of the balletic Susanti, who skipped and danced her way back to a 5-11, 11-5, 11-3 victory.
Indonesia’s twin gold medals were followed by a golden double for Korea as well. It had the two outstanding doubles players of the era, Hwang Hye-Young and Park Joo-Bong, and when it most mattered both delivered superbly.
Hwang had won four All-England women’s doubles titles with two different partners, the last with Chung So-Young, with whom she now formed the top-seeded pair. But they were confronted by Guan Wei-Zhen and Nong Qunhua, the world champions from China, who matched Hwang and Chung’s progress with three convincing wins.
Their final was on a knife edge all through, Hwang and Chung snatching a marathon first game, Guan and Nong clawing their way determinedly back in the second, and the Koreans needing five match points in the third before snatching an 18-16, 12-15, 15-13 victory.
Park and his long-time men’s doubles partner Kim Moon-Soo were the winners of two world titles, but had lost to Eddy Hartono and Rudy Gunawan four months previously in the All-England final. Now their revenge over the Indonesians by 15-11, 15-7 was smooth and forceful.
Significant in a different way was Park and Kim’s win over the Sidek brothers, Razif and Jalani, in the semi-finals. The losers’ had plenty of consolation for their bronze was the first Olympic medal won by a Malaysian in any sport. The ability to widen the appeal of the Olympic movement was a potent ingredient in badminton’s emergence.
Barcelona’92 thus signalled an international coming of age for badminton. It became a catalyst for greater funding, it enhanced professional standards, and it facilitated development programmes which expanded the game in every continent. No more could have been hoped for, from its debut.
Text by Richard Eaton
The Times’ badminton correspondent at the Barcelona Olympic Games
