Courting Greatness: a retrospective look at Malaysian badminton achievements

1961 Tan Gaik Bee became the first woman to win gold in the women’s singles at the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games).

1965 Malaysia’s shuttle queen, Rosalind Singha Ang, won gold in the women’s singles at her international debut in the SEA Games. She reclaimed the title in 1971 and went on to win multiple women’s doubles championship titles with Teoh Siew Yong (1967, 1969) and Sylvia Ng (1973, 1975). By the time Ang retired in 1975, she had been a player, captain and coach of the Malaysian women’s team.

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1966 Badminton debuted at the Commonwealth Games, where Tan Aik Huang and Yew Cheng Hoe won gold in the men’s doubles. Tan also won gold in the men’s singles while Yew took home the silver. Over the last 14 editions since its inception, Malaysian athletes have accumulated 31 gold medals, 22 silver medals and 16 bronze medals, totalling 69 medals in all.

1967 Tan Yee Khan and Ng Boon Bee defeated Indonesia to win the Thomas Cup, marking Malaysia’s first major international badminton title since gaining independence and the nation’s fourth Thomas Cup win overall. Other team members included Tan Aik Huang, Yew Cheng Hoe, Teh Kew San, Billy Ng Seow Meng and Omar Manaf.

1969 Sylvia Ng won the women’s singles title at the SEA Games, becoming the only Malaysian woman to win the title four times in total, in 1969, 1973, 1975 and 1977.

1970 Punch Gunalan and Ng Boon Bee secured the men’s doubles title at the Commonwealth Games. The pair soon became the leading men’s doubles team in the world, capturing gold at the 1970 Asian Games and All England Open title in 1971.

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1974 Punch Gunalan became the second Malaysian to win the men’s singles title at the Commonwealth Games. He retired in the same year but continued to periodically coach the Malaysian team and was one of the managers for the winning 1992 Thomas Cup team.

1975 The Uber Cup, founded in 1957 and sometimes called the World Women’s Team Championships in badminton, has also seen Malaysian participation, with the women’s team making it to the quarter-finals in 1975, 2004, 2008 and 2010.

1978 Sylvia Ng became the first Malaysian woman to become the singles badminton champion at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada.

1982 Misbun Sidek’s infamous Sidek Serve (S Serve), which involved hitting the shuttle into an erratic spin and confounding opponents and officials, was banned by the International Badminton Federation.

1985 Razif Sidek and Jalani Sidek clinched gold in the men’s doubles at the SEA Games.

1989 The Malaysian men’s team won gold at the SEA Games, thanks to the efforts of Cheah Soon Kit, Foo Kok Keong, Jalani Sidek, Rahman Sidek, Rashid Sidek, Razif Sidek, Soo Beng Kiang and Wong Tat Meng. The team repeated this success in 1991. The men’s badminton team had previously won gold more than a decade earlier, in 1971 and 1965.

1992 Razif Sidek and Jalani Sidek became the first Malaysian Olympians, winning bronze at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

1992 Malaysia won the Thomas Cup for the fifth time, this being the most recent win for the nation. The winning team included Razif Sidek, Jalani Sidek, Rashid Sidek, Foo Kok Keong, Cheah Soon Kit, Soo Beng Kiang, Kwan Yoke Meng and Rahman Sidek. The Malaysian Thomas Cup team were rewarded like kings, with the seven first-choice players receiving at least RM250,000, according to then-BAM president Tan Sri Elyas Omar. Additionally, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, who was the Sports Toto chief executive at the time, announced a donation of RM1.2 million to the team and BAM, with each of the seven players receiving RM100,000. Meanwhile, the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club pledged RM500,000 and a free lifetime membership worth RM75,000 to each player and the coaches. As the Sidek brothers and Foo Kok Keong hailed from Selangor, the state government also pledged 2.2 hectares of land for each player.

1996 Rashid Sidek won bronze at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, while Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock took silver in the men’s doubles in the same year. 

2001 Roslin Hashim won gold in the men’s singles at the SEA Games.

2003 Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah won the men’s doubles title at the SEA Games for Malaysia. The next time Malaysia would reclaim the spot was in 2019, through the efforts of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik.

2008 Lee Chong Wei won his first silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He went on to win two more silver medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio de Janeiro games, defining him as the Malaysian athlete with the most Olympic medals to date.

2010-2017 Lee Chong Wei dominated the men’s singles at the All England Open, winning in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2017. He is one of ten men to have won four or more titles. In June 2017, Lee became the oldest No 1 player in the Badminton World Federation rankings at the age of 34.

2016 In the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong alongside Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying took home silver medals for the men’s doubles and mixed doubles respectively.

2019 Kisona Selvaduray is the most recent women’s singles champion at the SEA Games. A promising talent, at age 10 she captured the singles and doubles titles at the 2009 Malaysia School Sports Council (MSSM) tournament, making her the youngest-ever champion in the competition’s history.

2019 Lee Zii Jia is the most recent Malaysian to hold the men’s singles title at the SEA Games, though it is far from his only contribution to raising the nation’s profile in the sport. With a career record of 234 wins and 125 losses, Lee broke into the BWF world top 10 rankings in March 2020 following his impressive showing at the All England Open, despite his loss to Danish player Viktor Axelsen in the semifinals.

2021 Setting the tone for the next generation, Chen Tang Jie and Peck Yen Wei are the most recent mixed doubles champions at the SEA Games.

2021 Lee Zii Jia took the men’s singles title at the All England Open, the most recent win for Malaysian badminton.

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2022 Dynamic duo Thinaah Muralitharan and Pearly Tan claimed the French Open title, becoming the first-ever Malaysian badminton women’s doubles team to achieve this feat just a year after clinching their first BWF World Tour title at the Swiss Open. The pair also clinched gold in the women’s doubles at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

2022 Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik made history, becoming the first Malaysian badminton players to win the world title in the men’s doubles at the BWF World Championships in Tokyo.

2024 Malaysia took the bronze in the Thomas Cup. The team comprised of Lee Zii Jia, Leong Jun Hao, Cheam June Wei, Justin Hoh, Aaron Chia, Soh Wooi Yik, Goh Sze Fei, Nur Izzuddin Rumsani, Choong Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal Nazri. 

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