Lê Đức Phát (born 1 February 1998) is a Vietnamese

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 ...

player. He qualified to represent Vietnam at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

and was chosen his country's flag bearer.

Biography

Đức Phát was born in 1998 in Đồng Nai, Vietnam. His father was a

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing * Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

, the Vietnamese national champion from 1988 to 1989. He played several sports growing up, including boxing and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, but ultimately decided to pursue

, which was his favorite. He began competing in the sport full-time at age 16 and won his first international tournament in 2017, the Pakistan International. He reached the top 150 of the

Badminton World Federation The Badminton World Federation, aka BWF, is the international governing body for the sport of badminton approved by the International Olympic Committee. It was founded on 5 July 1934 as the International Badminton Federation with nine member ...

(BWF) rankings in 2018. However, after achieving the top 150 ranking, Đức Phát suffered injuries and was further limited by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, causing him to spend significant time away from the sport and resulting in him falling to a ranking of 464 by August 2022. However, he rebounded towards the end of the year, performing well at several tournaments including winning the Vietnamese national championship over

Nguyễn Tiến Minh Nguyễn Tiến Minh (born February 12, 1983) is a Vietnamese badminton player. His best achievement to date was the bronze medal at the 2013 BWF World Championships, World Championship in 2013. Career Introduced to badminton by his father ...

, thus making him the top-ranked Vietnamese badminton player in men's singles. Đức Phát opened the 2023 season by being runner-up of the Vietnam International Challenge against Takuma Obayashi, and then winning at the Tajikistan International competition as well being runner-up at a tournament in Kazakhstan. He was ranked 86th in the world by February 2024 and that month won the

Uganda International The Uganda International is an international badminton tournament held in Uganda organised by Uganda Badminton Association. In 2008, this tournament have been sanctioned by Badminton World Federation as International Series rated event with total ...

, coming back from a 1–9 deficit to defeat Raghu Mariswamy. He reached the semi-finals of the April 2024 Kazakhstan International Challenge and by the end of that month was ranked 74th in the world by the BWF. Đức Phát qualified for the

by being the 34th-ranked player among those eligible for the men's singles event. He was named one of two flag bearers for Vietnam at the Olympics, along with archer Đỗ Thị Ánh Nguyệt.

Achievements

BWF International Challenge/Series (4 titles, 2 runners-up)

''Men's singles'' :

BWF International Challenge The BWF International Challenge is a grade 3 and level 1 tournament part of Continental Circuit of BWF tournaments along with International Series (level 2) and Future Series (level 3), sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007. ...

tournament :

BWF International Series The BWF International Series is a grade 3 and level 2 tournament part of Continental Circuit of BWF tournaments along with International Challenge (level 1) and Future Series (level 3), sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007. ...

tournament :

BWF Future Series The BWF Future Series is a grade 3 and level 3 tournaments part of Continental Circuit of BWF tournaments along with International Challenge (level 1) and International Series (level 2), sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007. ...

tournament

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Le, Duc Phat 1998 births Living people Vietnamese male badminton players People from Đồng Nai province Badminton players at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic badminton players for Vietnam 21st-century Vietnamese sportsmen