Gao Ling (; born 14 March 1979) is a Chinese former

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

player.

Career

Noted for her consistency, anticipation, forecourt prowess, and sporting smile, Gao is one of the most successful doubles players in the history of women's badminton. Her four Olympic badminton medals are the most of any player. She has won titles at almost every top tier tournament in the world. Gao has earned four gold medals (among nine medals in total) at the

BWF World Championships The BWF World Championships, formerly known as IBF World Championships, and also known as the World Badminton Championships, is a badminton tournament sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). The tournament is one of the most prestigious i ...

, three of them in women's doubles with

Huang Sui Huang Sui (; born 8 January 1982) is a Chinese-Australian female badminton player. Career Although Huang has won the Chinese National mixed doubles title almost all of her many international titles have come in women's doubles with Gao Ling, i ...

(

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

) and one of them in mixed doubles with Zhang Jun (

). She and Zhang Jun won consecutive gold medals in mixed doubles at the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and

2004 Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

, overcoming severe tests in both. Gao has not earned an

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

gold medal in women's doubles, a relative gap in her resume, but earned a bronze medal in 2000 with

Qin Yiyuan Qin Yiyuan (; born 14 February 1973) is a Chinese former world level badminton player. Qin played internationally for China from the mid-1990s through the 2000 Summer Olympics, a period during which her fellow countrywomen Ge Fei and Gu Jun dom ...

, and a silver medal with Huang Sui in 2004. From 2001 through 2006 she and Huang captured a record six consecutive women's doubles titles at the venerable All-England Championships. Their All-England streak was finally broken in the semifinals of the 2007 tournament by fellow countrywomen

Zhang Yawen Zhang Yawen (; born 9 March 1985) is a badminton player from China. Career Zhang has specialized in women's doubles and mixed doubles, earning numerous international titles in both events. At various times she has partnered either Zhang Dan, ...

and Wei Yili. Gao has shared five All-England mixed doubles titles: three with Zhang Jun (2001, 2003, and 2006), and two with

Zheng Bo Zheng Bo (; born 26 November 1983) is a badminton player from Hunan, China. Career A doubles specialist, Zheng won men's doubles at the 2003 Indonesia Open with Sang Yang. Zheng and Sang also secured the winning point against Denmark in the ...

(2007 and 2008). She has been a member of the perennial world champion

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

Uber Cup The Uber Cup, sometimes called the World Women's Team Championships, is a major international badminton competition contested by women's national badminton teams. First held in 1956–1957 and contested at three year intervals, it has been contes ...

(women's international) team since

. Gao Ling received an award during a ceremony to mark her retirement with five other teammates from the Chinese national badminton team on the sidelines of the China Open badminton event in Shanghai, November 23, 2008. However, she was still playing a year later by partnering with Wei Yili. They lost to Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen in the Thailand Open final of 2009, but won the Philippines Open of 2009.

Achievements