The men's doubles badminton tournament at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

took place from 24 to 31 July at the

Musashino Forest Sport Plaza The is a multi-sport venue located in Chōfu, Tokyo, Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan. The main arena has a seating capacity of over 10,000, and also includes a swimming pool, a gym, a multi-use sports area and two fitness studios, that is available for ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. There were 16 pairs from 14 nations competing.

Lee Yang Lee Yang (; born 12 August 1995) is a Taiwanese retired professional badminton player. He is the Olympic men's doubles champion in 2020 and 2024, becoming the first unseeded men's doubles pair in Olympics history to win consecutive gold medals ...

and

Wang Chi-lin Wang Chi-lin (; born 18 January 1995) is a Taiwanese badminton player who specializes in doubles. He is the 2020 and 2024 Olympics men's doubles champion, becoming the first doubles pair in Olympics history to win consecutive gold medals, and th ...

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One China principle stipulated by the ...

defeated

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Li Junhui Li Junhui (, born 10 May 1995) is a Chinese badminton player. He was the gold medalist at the 2018 World Championships in the men's doubles event partnered with Liu Yuchen, two times won the gold medal at the Asian Championships in 2017 and 20 ...

and

Liu Yuchen Liu Yuchen ( zh, s=刘雨辰, p=Liú Yǔchén, born 25 July 1995) is a Chinese badminton player. He was the men's doubles World Champion in 2018, two-time Asian Champion in 2017 and 2018, and also a silver medalist at the 2020 Summer Olympics p ...

in the final, 21–18, 21–12, to win the gold medal in men's doubles

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

at the

. It was Chinese Taipei's first gold medal in Olympic badminton, and marked the first time since

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

that the winner of the event was not from the People's Republic of China. In the bronze-medal match,

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Aaron Chia Aaron Chia Teng Fong (born 24 February 1997) is a Malaysian badminton player. A world champion, an Asian champion and a double bronze medalist at the Olympic Games, he and his partner Soh Wooi Yik became the first ever world badminton champion ...

and

Soh Wooi Yik Soh Wooi Yik (; born 17 February 1998) is a Malaysian badminton player. A world champion, an Asian champion and a double bronze medalist at the Badminton at the Summer Olympics, Olympic Games, he and his partner Aaron Chia became the first ev ...

defeated

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Mohammad Ahsan Mohammad Ahsan (born 7 September 1987) is an Indonesian retired badminton player affiliated with Djarum club who specializes in the men's doubles. He is a three-time World Champion, three-time season ending finals champion, and Asian Games go ...

and

Hendra Setiawan Hendra Setiawan (born 25 August 1984) is an Indonesian retired badminton player. He is an Olympic Games gold medalist, four-time World Champion, two-time Asian Games gold medalist, and two-time All England champion. With these achievements, Se ...

, 17–21, 21–17, 21–14. It was Malaysia's second consecutive medal in the event. China's

Fu Haifeng Fu Haifeng (born 23 August 1983) is a Chinese badminton player. Combining Fu Haifeng's impressive power with his regular partner Cai Yun's impressive speed, Cai and Fu have been one of the world's leading men's doubles teams since 2004. They ...

and Zhang Nan were the reigning gold medalists from

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, but Fu retired from international badminton in 2017 and Zhang chose not to participate in the event.

Background

This was the 8th appearance of the event as a full medal event. Badminton was introduced as a demonstration sport in 1972, held again as an exhibition sport in 1988, and added to the full programme in 1992; the men's doubles tournament has been held since. The reigning champions were

and Zhang Nan of China, who were not defending their title. Fu retired after the 2016 Games, having reached three consecutive finals with two different partners (Zhang and

Cai Yun Cai Yun (born 19 January 1980) is a former professional badminton player representing China. He is the 2012 London Olympic gold medallist and a four-time World Champion in men's doubles. He is regarded as one of the greatest men's doubles play ...

) and winning two gold medals and a silver medal. The top two qualifying teams were both from Indonesia: Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/

Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (born 2 August 1995) is an Indonesian former badminton player who was ranked world number 1 in the men's doubles by the Badminton World Federation. Considered as one of the best players of his generation, he won the men' ...

and

. The latter pair were also reigning world champions from the

2019 BWF World Championships The 2019 BWF World Championships was a badminton tournament which was held from 19 to 25 August 2019 at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland. Host city selection Basel was chosen to be the host of the 2019 edition of the championships over 2020 ...

Qualification

The badminton qualification system provided for 16 men's doubles teams (32 players). Following revisions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the qualifying periods were set from 29 April 2019 to 15 March 2020 and from 4 January to 13 June 2021, with the ranking list of 15 June 2021 deciding qualification. Qualification was done entirely through the ranking list. Nations with at least two pairs in the top 8 were able to send a maximum of 2 pairs (4 players); all other nations were limited to a single pair. Pairs were taken from the ranking list in order, respecting those national limits, until 16 pairs were selected. However, each continent was guaranteed to have at least one pair with the lowest-ranking pairs displaced if necessary to make room for a continental guarantee.

Competition format

The tournament was started with a group phase round-robin. There were four groups of four teams each; the top two highest-ranked pairs from each group advanced to the knockout stage. The knockout stage was a three-round single-elimination tournament with a bronze medal match. Matches were played best-of-three games. Each game was played to 21, except that a pair must win by 2 unless the score reached 30–29.

Seeds

# ''(quarter-finals)'' # ''(fourth place)'' # (silver medalists) # ''(quarter-finals)''

Schedule

The tournament was held over an 8-day period, with 7 competition days and 1 open day.

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Finals

The quarter-finals were held on 29 July 2021, the semi-finals on the next day, and the medal matches on 31 July 2021.

References

External links

Group play
{{DEFAULTSORT:Badminton at the 2020 Summer Olympics - Men's doubles Badminton at the 2020 Summer Olympics Men's events at the 2020 Summer Olympics