Andrew Pace
Badminton is a popular sport that debuted as an official event at the 1992 Summer Olympics and has featured in eight Olympic Games since. The Olympic Games use a repechage bracket system, which allows athletes who have lost earlier in the tournament to still compete and try to win a medal. This system results in two bronze medals being awarded in badminton, as both losing semi-finalists receive a bronze medal each.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Reason for 2 bronze medals | Repechage brackets allow athletes who have lost earlier in the tournament to still compete and try to win a medal. |
| The repechage round happens after the first round of competition and helps to determine who advances to later rounds. | |
| The bronze medals are given to the third-place finishers of each gender. | |
| The losing semi-finalists play against each other to decide the third-placed player/team. | |
| The system of giving both losing semi-finalists a bronze medal was introduced during the Helsinki 1952 Olympics. |
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What You'll Learn
The repechage bracket competition format
The repechage bracket is a competition format that allows athletes who have lost in earlier rounds to still compete and try to win a medal. It is used in wrestling, rowing, judo, taekwondo, athletics, karate, and badminton tournaments.
Repechage, which is French for 'fishing out' or 'rescuing', was first introduced at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 for wrestling events. It has been a part of both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling since. The system has also been used in fencing tournaments, although it has now been abandoned by most.
The repechage round happens after the first round of competition and helps determine who advances to the later rounds. Semifinals and finals are then held according to which athletes advanced from the repechage round. Repechage brackets are built from athletes knocked out by the finalists, creating brackets to determine third place.
In full repechage, a competitor who loses to the pool winner falls into the repechage bracket. The theory is that a worthy competitor who is paired with another worthy competitor should not be unduly penalized by the luck of the draw but should have an opportunity to fight for at least third place.
In a partial double-elimination repechage bracket, the bracket winner will take third place. Dual third-place finishers can result with full, quarter-final, or double-elimination repechage. Losers from two championship bracket pools are placed into one repechage bracket, and losers from the other two pools are placed in the other repechage bracket.
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Bronze playoff in court sports
The bronze playoff is a fixture in court sports, including badminton, to decide the winner of the bronze medal. In the Olympics, the bronze medal is awarded to the third-best athlete or team in a particular event. While the gold and silver medals are awarded to the winners of the final, the bronze medal match is typically competed between the semi-finalists who lost their respective matches.
In badminton, the repechage bracket is often used, where athletes who have lost earlier in the tournament can still compete and try to win a medal. This is a competition that gives athletes who have already lost a second chance to advance to the next round. Due to this competition format, two bronze medals are awarded, one each to the losing semi-finalists.
The bronze playoff is also used in other Olympic sports played on courts and fields, such as 3x3 basketball, softball/baseball, handball, and volleyball. In martial arts and combat sports, two bronze medals are awarded without a playoff. Boxing, for example, awards bronze medals to both losing semi-finalists, a system introduced during the 1952 Helsinki Olympics as there was not enough time for the fighters to recover between bouts. Judo, taekwondo, and wrestling also award two bronze medals, but these feature two bronze medal matches between the losing semi-finalists and the winners of the repechage.
Outside of the Olympics, the third-place playoff is also used in other competitions, such as the UEFA Nations League and the FIFA Women's World Cup, where it is played before the final.
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Two bronze medals in boxing
In boxing, two bronze medals are awarded to the losing semi-finalists, instead of having them compete for third place. This is due to the short interval between the semi-final and the third-place match, which does not give boxers adequate time to recover, risking their health.
Boxing is one of the most physically demanding Olympic sports, with competitors exchanging punches for three rounds of three minutes each. The International Boxing Association (AIBA) changed the rule at its second congress in 1950, deciding to eliminate the bronze medal match. The rule was introduced due to the health risks of a short recovery period for boxers after a loss by knockout, for example. In most boxing settings, there are mandatory periods that must be observed before a boxer can re-enter the ring.
Until the 1948 London Olympics, boxers participated in a bronze medal playoff. The system of awarding two bronze medals was introduced during the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. The AIBA recommended that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) not hold the bronze medal match, and the beaten semi-finalists were given an Olympic diploma instead of a medal. This practice continued for five editions until the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. In 1970, AIBA proposed that the IOC award two bronze medals to both losing semi-finalists, ending the practice of awarding diplomas.
Some other sports that award two bronze medals include judo, taekwondo, karate, wrestling, and other martial arts.
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Badminton's Olympic history
Badminton has been a part of the Olympic Games since the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, where it was introduced as a demonstration sport. Twenty years later, after a successful exhibition at the 1988 games, badminton was officially introduced to the Olympics in 1989. It finally debuted as an official event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, with men's and women's singles and doubles events. The mixed doubles event made its debut four years later at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, bringing the total number of events to five, which has been unchanged ever since.
The 1992 Games saw four medals awarded in each of the four events, including two bronze medals. This format has continued ever since, with a playoff between the two semi-final losers to determine the sole winner of the bronze medal. This means that two bronze medals are awarded per event, one each for the third-place finishers of each gender.
The 2024 Summer Olympics marked the centennial anniversary of badminton at the Olympics, with China continuing its dominance as the most successful nation in the sport. China has won 52 medals, with 37 of them coming from the women's singles, doubles, and mixed doubles tournaments. Indonesia, South Korea, and Malaysia are the only other nations with more than ten medals.
Badminton at the Olympics follows a group stage and single-elimination tournament format. Each match is played as the best of three games, with games played to 21 points. Rally scoring is used, meaning a player can score points regardless of whether they are serving or not. To win a game, a player must be ahead by two points or be the first to reach 30 points.
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Third-place finishers of each gender
The two bronze medals in badminton are awarded to the third-place finishers of each gender. This means that, even if one country has more gold medals, if another country has more bronze medals, it will be awarded the bronze medal.
At the 1992 Summer Olympics, there were four additional bronze medal winners because no bronze medal matches were played in any of the four tournaments. In the 2000 Summer Olympics, China swept the women's doubles tournament, winning all three medals, making it the only sweep in Olympic badminton history. Indonesia also did this in the 1992 Olympics men's singles tournament, but there was no bronze medal match in that Games so the medal was shared with Danish player Thomas Stuer-Lauridsen.
Indonesia's Anthony Ginting won the Tokyo 2020 badminton singles bronze medal, while Guatemalan player Kevin Cordon fell short of securing a medal. In the same year, India's Lakshya Sen and Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy won bronze medals in the men's singles and men's doubles events, respectively, at the badminton world championships.
PV Sindhu is India's most successful badminton player at the BWF World Championships, with one gold, two silver, and two bronze medals. Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa are the only Indian doubles pair to win a badminton world championship medal, taking bronze in 2011.
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Frequently asked questions
There are two bronze medals because the losing semi-finalists play each other to determine the sole winner of the bronze medal.
The losing quarter-finalists in the same half of the draw compete against each other, and the winner of each plays the losing semi-finalists in the same half of the draw for two bronze medals.
A repechage bracket allows athletes who have lost earlier in the tournament to still compete and try to win a medal.
The repechage round happens after the first round of competition and helps determine who advances to the later rounds. Semifinals and finals are then held according to which athletes advanced from the repechage round.
