A brief history of badminton

As long as 2000 years ago, a game similar to badminton was played in China and Japan, but the Indian game of "Poona" seems to be badminton's closest ancestor. In Europe, a game of shuttlecocks first appeared at the Court of François 1st in the 16th century, but it had no rules and no rackets, and the shuttle was simply hit with the palm of the hand.

Badminton was first discovered by the soldiers of the British Empire in India. When they returned home they carried on playing and gave the sport its name at Badminton House in 1873. The rules were quite primitive in the early years and went through many mutations before badminton became an Olympic sport in 1992.

Today, the world's finest players are to be found primarily in China, Indonesia, Korea and Malaysia. In Europe, only two countries - Denmark and England - can rival the Asians.

Badminton in France

Since the founding of the French Badminton Federation (FFBa) in 1978, the number of card-holding members has constantly risen. Over the past ten years, the numbers have literally doubled, with the milestone of 100,000 members being passed in 2005 and over 140,000 today.

Since 1987, the FFBa has hosted international tournaments, starting with the Open de France up until 2004, and then the Super Series in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and the Badminton World Championships in Paris in 2010.