The badminton world got the finish at the 2012 London Olympics with an exciting finals day at the prestigious Wembley Arena. It’s time to look back and round-up the badminton competition from a European perspective.

The men’s singles category saw Peter Gade play his last event at a high level. The Danish legend reached the quarter-finals stage losing to the eventual bronze medallist Chen Long of China. European Champion Marc Zwiebler and Jan Ø. Jørgensen played a good tournament by reaching the last 16. Both will reach the peak of their career in Rio 2016.

Denmark’s Tine Baun reached the quarter-final stage in the women’s singles event. The European Champion lost to the eventual Bronze medal winner Saina Nehwal in a close match. Juliane Schenk of Germany did not play at her best level losing to Thailand wonderkid Ratchanok Intanon. Carolina Marin of Spain shows against the later gold winner from China that she has a lot of potential. We are looking forward to 2016.

The women’s doubles event saw an unexpected bronze medal for Russians Nina Vislova and Valeri Sorokina. Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl played a great group against the eventual gold winners from China. But in their last quarter-final match against a duo from Japan they could not reach their heights.

Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen took a bronze medal in the mixed doubles. Michael Fuchs/Birgit Michels, Robert Mateusiak/Nadiezda Zieba and Thomas Laybourn/Kamilla Rytter Juhl all reached the quarter-finals. With a bit of luck at least one of these duos could have reached another semi-final.

Danish duo of Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen crowned their fantastic performance in London with a Silver medal. By reaching the finals in London, the former All-England-Champions secured the best result for the European continent. Before Boe/Mogensen, only three Europeans reached the Olympic finals: 1996 Poul-Erik Høyer, who later took the gold medal, 2000 Camilla Martin and 2004 Nathan Robertson/Gail Emms in the mixed doubles.

29 European Member Associations were present in London

“The 2012 Olympic Games were very satisfactory from a European perspective. A silver and a bronze medal to Denmark and a bronze medal to Russia exceeded the expectations after having had no European medals in 2008”, said Brian Agerbak, General Secretary of Badminton Europe Confederation and added: “It is also very satisfactory that 29 European Member Associations were represented in London. I would like to congratulate all medal winners, their Member Association and all the Member Association that had players qualified for London.”

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