Badminton Competition
BWF hosted several international competitions, including the Thomas Cup, an international male first-team party held in 1948-1949, and the women's first ever Uber Cup was held in 1956-1957. Competition takes place every two years. More than 50 national teams compete in qualifying tournaments in continental confederations for a place in the final. The final tournament involved 12 teams, following an increase of eight teams in 2004.
Sudirman Cup, team international team mixed team matches are held every two years, starting in 1989. The team is divided into seven levels based on the achievements of each country. To win a tournament, a country must play well in all numbers (doubles and men's singles, doubles and women's singles, and mixed doubles).
Badminton was contested at the 1972 and 1988 Summer Olympics. It became an official Olympic Summer sport at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and his gold medal is now generally rated as the most coveted sports prize for any player.
In the BWF World Championships, first held in 1977, currently the highest ranked only 64 players in the world, and a maximum of four from each country, can participate in each category. In both Olympic and BWF competitions, the limitation of the number of participants from one country has caused some controversy because sometimes it causes them not to include the world's elite players from the world's worst badminton country. The Thomas, Uber, Sudirman, Olympic and BWF (and BWF Junior World Championships) cups are all categorized as the same tournament level.
In early 2007, BWF introduced a new tournament structure for the highest level tournament aside from the first-rate tournament: BWF Super Series. The second level tournament, a tour for the world's elite players, schedules twelve open tournaments worldwide with 32 players (half of the previous limit). The players collect points that determine whether they can play in the Super Series final held at the end of the year. Among the tournament series there is the British Open Badminton Championships, first held in 1900, once regarded as an unofficial world championship.
The third-tier tournament consists of the Grand Prix Gold and BWF Grand Prix. Great players can collect world ranking points and allow them to play in open BWF Super Series tournaments. These include regional competition in Asia (Badminton Asia Championships) and Europe (European Badminton Championships), which produces the world's best players as well as Pan America Badminton Championships.
The fourth level tournament, known as the International Challenge, International Series and Future Series, encourages the participation of junior players.