- Lee Yong-dae
Infobox Badminton player
playername = Lee Yong-dae
caption = Lee Yong-dae during a training session
birth_name = 이용대
date_of_birth = birth date and age|1988|9|11
place_of_birth =Hwasun ,Jeollanam-do
height = height|m=1.80
weight =
event = Men's/Mixed doubles
years_active = 2003
highest_ranking = 2
date_of_highest_ranking =
current_ranking = 3
date_of_current_ranking = August 21, 2008
country = KOR
coach =Ha Tae-kwon
handedness = Right
best_result =
bwf_id = 52774Infobox Korean name
hangul=이용대
hanja= 李龍大
rr=I Yongdae
mr=I YongdaeLee Yong-dae (
Hangul : 이용대) (bornSeptember 11 ,1988 inHwasun ,Jeollanam-do ) is a malebadminton player fromSouth Korea . He is by many considered a great talent and already a wonderful player, often being called the 'new'Park Joo-bong .Lee started playing badminton at his local elementary school at the age of 8. He joined the national
badminton team ofSouth Korea in 2003, at the age of just 15 years old. His current partners areJung Jae-sung in men's doubles (as of 2006) andLee Hyo-jung in mixed doubles (as of 2007).Career
2005
Struggling to find the right partner, he played several tournaments, not getting any big results; only two semi-finals in the Asian Satellite. With
Ha Jung-eun as his partner, they won Asian Junior Championship.2006
Lee won the Thailand Open together with Jung; they had a walkover in the final against compatriots
Lee Jae-jin andHwang Ji-man . Together withHwang Yu-mi , Lee won the mixed doubles tournament.At the Asian Games, Lee and Jung became bronze medalists after losing the semi-finals to
Luluk Hadiyanto andAlvent Yulianto ofIndonesia in the individual men's doubles event. In the team event, South Korea lost to China in the final 2-3, thus gaining Lee a silver medal.2007
In January, Lee and Jung participated in the Malaysia Open, the first ever
BWF Super Series event. There they got through the first round but had to resign due to injury. However a week later they blew away competition to take the first prize at the Korea Open. On top of that, Lee also won the mixed doubles with Lee Hyo-jung. Lee and Jung lost to Lee Jae-jin and Hwang Ji-man in the final of the German Open; in mixed doubles Lee and Lee lost toZheng Bo andGao Ling ofChina in the semi-finals. Zheng and Gao went on to win the tournament.At the Swiss Open, Lee and Lee took another title, winning the final in three games. For the rest of the year there have been no good results in mixed doubles for Lee, mainly because he didn't participate or played with another partner. In men's doubles, he and Jung were eliminated in a disappointing second round.
Lee participated to the
2007 Sudirman Cup with the South Korea team. The team lost to China in the semi-finals with a score of 0-3.In July, after a period of disappointing results in men's doubles, Lee became runner-up with Jung at the Thailand Open, losing to Lee Jae-jin and Hwang Ji-man. Not much later, the pair went on to take the silver medal in the
2007 BWF World Championships . They were defeated in the final byMarkis Kido andHendra Setiawan ofIndonesia , 19-21, 19-21. In mixed doubles Lee reached the third round withLee Hyo-jung . There they lost toGail Emms andNathan Robertson ofEngland in three games. WithJung Jae-sung , the rest of the year also resulted in quite disappointing achievements, not getting past quarterfinals in any major events, except in the French Open. Lee and Jung there lost to the eventual winners,Cai Yun andFu Haifeng ofChina .2008
To start 2008, Lee, together with Jung, disappointingly lost to an unseeded pair in the second round of the Malaysia Open. Mixed doubles went better for Lee and Lee this time, finishing as runner-up. The lost to
He Hanbin andYu Yang ofChina . In Korea, things went a bit better in men's doubles, achieving a quarterfinal. Lee and Jung lost to runners-up Luluk Hadiyanto and Alvent Yulianto of Indonesia there, but in mixed doubles Lee and Lee won the title againstFlandy Limpele andVita Marissa ofIndonesia .More than a month later, Lee and Jung came back with a bang to win the All England Open of 2008, beating
Choong Tan Fook andLee Wan Wah in a thrilling semi-final (coming back from a 16-20 deficit in the third game) and Lee Jae-jin and Hwang Ji-man, also from Korea, in the final. In mixed doubles Lee lost in the quarterfinals to eventual winnersZheng Bo andGao Ling . A week later, Lee was victorious with Jung in the Swiss Open too. In mixed doubles there was a loss against He Hanbin and Yu Yang, now in the semi-finals.At the
Badminton Asia Championships Lee and Jung became winners, beatingCandra Wijaya andNova Widianto of Indonesia in the final.Lee and Jung pair were the only ones to score a point for South Korea against China in the Thomas Cup final, which ended in a 3-1 win for China.
Olympics
Not having participated in the two following Super Series events, supposably because of their preparations for the Summer Olympics, Lee was disappointingly knocked out in the first round in Beijing with Jung. However, Lee and Lee upset the badminton world and went on to get the gold medal in mixed doubles, becoming one of the youngest gold medalists in Olympic badminton. The pair was unseeded.
External links
* [http://www.internationalbadminton.org/playerinfo.asp?playerid=52774 BWF Player Profile]
* [http://www.badzine.info/index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=554&sobi2Id=101&Itemid=54 Badzine Player's Database]
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