Yao Jie (; born 10 April 1977) is a Chinese-born

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 p ...

player who now resides in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Yao is one of a number of badminton players who have emigrated from China, in part, because the depth of badminton talent in that country has made it difficult for them to be selected for major international competitions. Prior to her move to the Netherlands, she won the BWF World Junior Championships in girls' doubles with

Liu Lu Liu Lu (; born 2 April 1989) is a professor of mathematics at Central South University in Changsha, Hunan, where he is China's youngest full university Professor. As a 22-year-old undergraduate student Lu proved that Ramsey theorem for infinite ...

in 1994 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and helps the Chinese national women's team clinched a gold medal at the 1997 East Asian Games. But her passion was for the ladies singles event. Since moving to the Netherlands Yao Jie has won the women's singles event 4 times at the Dutch Open (2003, 2008, 2009 & 2011), she won the Thailand Open twice (2004, 2005), and the biennial European Championships once ( 2002), and a high number of 11 Dutch National Championships. Nine times the Dutch crown in singles and twice in doubles. She was also a 3-times European bronze medalist in the 2004, 2006 European Badminton Championships and

2012 European Badminton Championships The 2012 European Badminton Championships were the 23rd tournament of the European Badminton Championships. They were held in Karlskrona, Sweden, from 16–21 April 2012, and they were organised by the Badminton Europe and Svenska Badmintonförbu ...

. She won the Velo Dutch International twice, in 2001 beating

Mia Audina Mia Audina Tjiptawan (born 22 August 1979) is a former Indonesian badminton player who represented Indonesia and later the Netherlands in international competitions. A badminton prodigy, Audina first played Uber Cup (the women's world team champi ...

9–11, 11–1, 13–10 and in 2012 beating Malaysian

Sonia Su Ya Cheah Soniia Cheah Su Ya ( Chinese:谢抒芽, born 19 June 1993) is a former Malaysian badminton player. She is the younger sister of Lyddia Cheah who is also a professional badminton player. Career In her junior career, she represented Malaysia at ...

19–21, 21–9, 21–12 in the final. She also won the

Italian International The Italian International in badminton is an international open held in Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterrane ...

in 2011 beating Bulgarian

Petya Nedelcheva Petya Nedelcheva ( bg, Петя Неделчева; born 30 July 1983) is a Bulgarian badminton player. She was born in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. At the Bulgarian National Badminton Championships she won more than 20 titles. Career A right-hand ...

in the final 21–11, 21–17 and won the

Finnish International The Finnish Open (until 2013 known as ''Finnish International''), is an international open badminton tournament held in Finland since 1990. It was halted in 1994, 1995, and between 1997 and 2001. In 2013, it was held for the fourth time in the Ener ...

Open in 2012 beating Canadian

Michelle Li Michelle Li (born November 3, 1991) is a Canadian badminton player from Markham, Ontario. Li is the 2014 Commonwealth Games champion and the first Canadian to win an individual gold medal in women's singles badminton at the Commonwealth Games. ...

22–20, 21–19. Yao Jie was a runner-up to

Zhang Ning Zhang Ning (; born 19 May 1975) is a former Chinese badminton player. She won the Olympic gold medal twice for women's singles in both 2004 and 2008. She has played badminton on the world scene since the mid-1990s and has been particularly succes ...

at the China Open in 2006, runner-up to

Juliane Schenk Juliane Schenk (born 26 November 1982) is a German badminton player. In March 2014 she retired from international play. Career In 2001, she won the European Junior Championships in women's singles. 2003 saw her win the women's doubles with Ni ...

of Germany at the 2010 Dutch Open, runner-up to

Li Xuerui Li Xuerui (born 24 January 1991) is a retired Chinese professional badminton player. She is one of the most successful players of her time. She was a gold medalist at 2012 London Olympics in the women's singles event and was the silver medalists ...

of China at the 2011

Bitburger Open The Hylo Open, formerly known as the BMW Badminton Cup, BMW Open, Bitburger Masters, Bitburger Open and SaarLorLux Open, is an international badminton tournament held at the Saarlandhalle in Saarbrücken, Germany, since 1988. It was sponsored by t ...

Grand Prix Gold and runner-up to

at the 2012

Grand Prix Gold. Her performances at

2004 Olympic Games 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), ...

and at recent

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 ...

have not been among her strongest. She was eliminated in the round of 16 at the Athens Games by

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

's Wang Chen and has proceeded no farther than that round in any of her World Championship appearances. A big disappointment was her non participating at the 2008 Olympic Games in her native China, despite being qualified by the international norm, but not by the more stricter Dutch qualifying norm. In January 2009 Yao Jie married Dutch player

Eric Pang Eric Pang (born 30 January 1982) is a Dutch badminton player, who became European Junior Champion in 2001. He won the National Dutch Championships seven times between 2009 and 2015. Career As a part of the BC Amersfoort team Pang reached the f ...

. In March 2011 Yao Jie was part of the Dutch Fource team, together with Dutch top players

Dicky Palyama Dicky Palyama (born March 26, 1978 in Gouda) is a male badminton player from the Netherlands. Early career After winning four junior titles in the Netherlands between 1994 and 1996, Dicky took the European junior U19 title in 1997. His first suc ...

Judith Meulendijks Judith Meulendijks (born 26 September 1978, Helmond) is a former badminton player from the Netherlands. Career Meulendijks started playing badminton at the BC Phoenix in her hometown and then she went to BC Geldrop. In her junior career, she won ...

and

. This team was formed as a result of a conflict with the Nederlandse Badminton Bond sponsored by Yonex, and these four players were non Yonex sponsored players, Yao Jie playing for sponsor Carlton. The conflict heightened in 2011 when these four non Yonex sponsored players were not included in the National squad to play the European Team Championships in Amsterdam. Despite all these juridical sponsor wranglings, Yao Jie managed to qualify for the London Olympics. At the 2012 Olympic Games in the Women's Singles Yao Jie won Group F by beating Akvilė Stapušaitytė of Lithuania 21–16, 21–7 and

Ragna Ingólfsdóttir Ragna Björg Ingólfsdóttir (born 22 February 1983) is an Icelandic badminton player. She represented Iceland in 2008 Beijing and again at the 2012 London Summer Olympics. She trained at the Tennis og badmintonfélag Reykjavíku, and educated ...

of Iceland 21–12, 25–23. After the group stage, in the knock-out stage round of 16 Yao Jie lost to

Saina Nehwal Saina Nehwal (; born 17 March 1990) is an Indian professional badminton player. A former world no. 1, she has won 24 international titles, which includes ten Superseries titles. Although she reached the world's 2nd in 2009, it was only in 2015 ...

of India 14–21, 16–21. Saina later progressed to win India's first Olympic badminton medal, a bronze. Nowadays Yao Jie has her own Badminton Academy at her hometown Wuhan in China and is ambassador for Dutch Badminton in sports and cultural exchanges between the Netherlands and China.

Achievements

World Cup

''Women's singles''

European Championships

''Women's singles''

World Junior Championships

''Girls' doubles'' ''Mixed doubles''

BWF Grand Prix

The BWF Grand Prix had two levels, the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It was a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and played between 2007 and 2017. The World Badminton Grand Prix was sanctioned by the International Badminton Federation from 1983 to 2006. ''Women's singles'' : BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament : IBF/BWF Grand Prix tournament

BWF International Challenge/Series

''Women's singles'' : BWF International Challenge tournament : IBF International tournament

Record Against Selected Opponents

Includes results from all competitions against Super Series finalists, World Championship semifinalists, Olympic quarterfinalists, and all Olympic opponents.http://bwfcontent.tournamentsoftware.com/profile/selectheadtohead.aspx?id=15EC2421-543A-4E50-B70C-04C4955053AE *

7–4 * Gong Ruina 0–2 * Gong Zhichao 0–1 *

Jiang Yanjiao Jiang Yanjiao (; born 26 June 1986), is a Chinese badminton player from Changzhou. She graduated from the Huaqiao University. Career A winner of both the BWF World Junior Championships (2002) and the Asian Junior Championships (2004), Jiang has ...

0–10 *

0–2 * Liu Xin 1–0 *

Lu Lan Lu Lan (born 2 May 1987) is a badminton player from China. Career In 2004, she won the Polish Open (badminton), Polish Open. In 2006, she won the 2006 Korea Open, Korea Open and finished the year in the 5th position in the BWF World Ranking. In ...

1–3 * Wang Lin 0–2 *

Wang Shixian Wang Shixian (; ; born 13 February 1990) is a retired Chinese professional badminton player. She is a former World No. 1 in women's singles. Career Wang Shixian was admitted into Chinese Junior National Team in 2005 and was soon promoted t ...

0–3 * Wang Xin 0–2 *

Wang Yihan Wang Yihan (born 18 January 1988) is a retired Chinese professional badminton player and former women's singles world champion and Olympic silver medalist. Wang started her career with her coach Wang Pengren at only nine years of age. She was ...

1–3 *

Xie Xingfang Xie Xingfang (born January 8, 1981) is a retired Chinese badminton player from Guangzhou, Guangdong. She is a former defending two-time world champion for women's singles, and former women's singles World No. 1. Her first big title was in girl ...

2–4 *

Ye Zhaoying Ye Zhaoying (; born 7 May 1974) is a retired badminton player from Hangzhou, China. Officially ranked as the number one women's singles player in the world for the first time in December 1995, she lost and regained that ranking several times du ...

0–1 *

3–8 * Zhu Lin 1–2 *

Cheng Shao-chieh Cheng Shao-chieh (; born 4 January 1986) is a badminton player from Taiwan. Cheng played badminton at the 2004 Summer Olympics for the Republic of China as Chinese Taipei. In women's singles, she defeated Ling Wan Ting of Hong Kong and Jun Jae ...

1–2 *

Tai Tzu-ying Tai Tzu-ying (; born 20 June 1994) is a Taiwanese badminton player. At the age of 22, she became world No. 1 in the women's singles in December 2016, and she is the women's singles player who has held that title for the longest in BWF hist ...

1–1 *

Tine Baun Tine Baun (née Rasmussen; born 21 July 1979) is a Danish former badminton player. Most notably, she won the All England Open Badminton Championships women's singles title three times in 2008, 2010, and 2013 – the last of these being her final ...

5–3 *

Camilla Martin Camilla Martin Nygaard (née Martin; born 23 March 1974) is a retired badminton player from Denmark. She and Lene Køppen, who played two decades earlier, are the only Danish women to have won both the All England and World Championships singl ...

1–4 *

Tracey Hallam Tracey Jayne Hallam (born 24 March 1975) is a former English badminton player. Career Hallam played badminton at the 2004 Summer Olympics. In women's singles, she defeated Juliane Schenk of Germany and Camilla Martin of Denmark in the first tw ...

3–0 *

Pi Hongyan Pi Hongyan (; born 25 January 1979) is a former Chinese badminton player, who later represented France. Career Pi Hongyan is one of a number of talented Chinese-born badminton players who have emigrated from China, in part, because of the inte ...

3–12 *

2–4 *

Xu Huaiwen Huaiwen Xu (; born 2 August 1975) is a German badminton player. Born in Guiyang, Guizhou, China, she decided to play for Germany because the Chinese thought that she was too short to play professional world badminton.Said by David Mercer/ Gill ...

3–6 * Wang Chen 0–1 *

Yip Pui Yin Yip Pui Yin (; born 6 August 1987) is a badminton player from Hong Kong. Career Yip played at the 2005 World Badminton Championships in Anaheim. In the women's singles event she reached the third round after beating Laura Molina of Spain and ...

3–6 * Zhou Mi 0–7 *

1–0 *

2–4 * Maria Kristin Yulianti 0–2 * Eriko Hirose 2–4 *

Sayaka Sato is a Japanese badminton player. She competed for Japan at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Achievements BWF World Junior Championships ''Girls' singles'' BWF Superseries The BWF Superseries, launched on 14 December 2006 and implemented in 200 ...

1–0 * Shizuka Uchida 2–0 *

Bae Youn-joo Bae Yeon-ju (Hangul: 배연주, Hanja: 裵延姝; ; born 26 October 1990) is a retired international badminton player from South Korea. Career Bae started playing badminton at aged 10, and first gained international attention in 2006 when she ...

1–4 * Sung Ji-hyun 1–4 * Akvilė Stapušaitytė 1–0 *

2–2 *

Wong Mew Choo Datin Wong Mew Choo (born 1 May 1983) is a Malaysian former badminton singles player. She was known for her exceptional stamina and endurance. Without any significant attacking weapons, she initially built her game on her ability to endure lon ...

2–0 *

Jiang Yanmei Jiang Yanmei ( Simplified Chinese: 江彦媚; born 28 February 1981) is a Chinese-born Singaporean badminton player. She competed at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics; 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games; and also 2006 Asian Games. Early life Bo ...

1–0 *

Carolina Marín Carolina María Marín Martín (born 15 June 1993) is a Spanish professional badminton player. She is an Olympic Champion, three-time World Champion, six-time European Champion, and the former World's No. 1 in BWF rankings for the women's si ...

1–1 *

Porntip Buranaprasertsuk Porntip Buranaprasertsuk ( th, พรทิพย์ บูรณะประเสริฐสุข; born 24 October 1991) is a Thai badminton player. Buranaprasertsuk won her first Superseries title in 2011 India Open on 1 May 2011, becoming ...

0–1 *

Ratchanok Intanon Ratchanok Intanon ( th, รัชนก อินทนนท์, , ; born 5 February 1995) is a Thai badminton player who became the first Thai to become No.1 in women's singles. She is known for her relaxed hitting motion and light footwork, w ...

0–3

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yao, Jie 1977 births Living people Badminton players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Badminton players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Badminton players from Wuhan Chinese female badminton players Dutch female badminton players Chinese emigrants to the Netherlands Naturalised citizens of the Netherlands European sportspeople of Chinese descent Olympic badminton players of the Netherlands