These five female legends, through their achievements, multiple rankings, and overall impact on the sport, have created remarkable careers in the history of badminton that remain prominent even today.
Li Lingwei (China)
The Chinese badminton player of the 1980s, Li Lingwei, won 40 open international titles. Besides this, she won three World Championship gold medals and major titles, including four gold medals in the World Grand Prix Finals, two All-England singles titles, and one All-England women’s doubles title.
Lingwei was crowned with the singles title twice at the IBF World Championships in 1983 and 1989. She also won silver at the 1987 World Championships and a bronze medal at the 1985 World Championships. She won the first Uber Cup for China in 1984.
In the Badminton World Cup, she won four titles in the women’s singles event and three in the women’s doubles event in the 1983, 1986, and 1987 seasons. She was inducted into the Badminton Hall of Fame in 1998.
Zhang Ning (China)
A former Olympic gold medalist, Ning won her first Uber Cup for China in 1994 in Beijing, receiving her first world title in 2003.
She is the first female to win two consecutive Olympic gold medals in the singles event in the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing events. She was inducted into the Badminton World Federation Hall of Fame in 2021.
She also won five straight World Championships: one gold in 2003, two silvers in 2005 and 2006, followed by two bronze medals in 2001 and 2007.
Susi Susanti (Indonesia)
Susanti is the first Indonesian Olympic gold medalist; she won at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics. At the age of 18, she made it to the final of the All-England Open.
In 1990, she won the All-England event by beating Huang Hua in two sets. Then they went on to win three more All-England titles in 1991, 1993, and 1994. She also won a bronze medal in the singles event at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.
She was influential in the Indonesian women’s team’s two-time win in the Uber Cup in 1994 and 1996.
Camilla Martin (Denmark)
The European player dominated the women’s singles event during her era as a three-time champion in 1996, 1998, and 2000. She led Denmark to five European team championship titles in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004.
Martin won 13 straight Danish national championships from 1991 to 2003, the World Championship in 1999, and the All-England winner in 2002.
Another major tournament win includes a silver in the 2000 Summer Olympics. She lost the finals game to People’s Republic of China player Gong Zhichao. In the Denmark Open, she won six titles, including 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2002. She was named the runner-up in the 2000 Uber Cup and 1999 Sudirman Cup.
Xie Xingfang (China)
The former women’s world No. 1 shuttler has won two Olympic gold medals in the women’s singles event. She won her first world championship in 2005 and went on to win in Madrid the next year. In 2006, she went on to win three All-England singles titles in a row.
She won her first major title in girl’s doubles, with teammate Zhang Jiewen, at the 1998 World Junior Championships. She also won an Olympic silver medal in 2008 and was a two-time world champion in 2005 and 2006.
