Badminton at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Badminton at the 1996 Summer Olympics included the four events held at the previous Games (men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles) as well as a fifth event: mixed doubles. An additional change to the tournament was the playoff game for the bronze medal rather than the awarding of two bronzes.

The tournament was single-elimination. Matches consisted of three sets, with sets being to 15 except in women's singles, where sets were to 11. The tournament was held at the Georgia State University gymnasium.

Medallists

Women's singles round of 32

All participants had matches in this round. Only four of the sixteen winners were European, the rest came from Asian nations. All three members of the Chinese team and all three members of the Indonesian team advanced, as did two of the Japanese players and two of the Korean players.

winners in bold, medallists highlighted in the color of their medal

Women's singles semifinals

Both of the semifinal matches were Indonesia-Korea rivalries. The first, between Mia Audina of Indonesia and Kim Ji-Hyun of Korea, continued Audina's streak of three-set victories. The second semifinal was a rematch of the 1992 final, in which Susi Susanti had defeated Bang Soo-hyun in three sets. After completely dominating one opponent and allowing only ten points in the three matches she had played, Bang won a pair of tight sets against Susanti to advance to the final.

winners in bold, medallists highlighted in the color of their medal

Men's singles

49 players from 31 nations competed in the men's singles competition.

Men's singles round of 64

winners in bold, medallists highlighted in the color of their medal

Men's singles quarterfinals

Rashid Sidek of Malaysia pulled off a surprising upset over the #1-seeded Indonesian Joko Suprianto. Høyer Larsen kept a second European medal hopes alive with his defeat of another member of the Indonesian team, defending gold medallist Alan Budikusuma. The final Indonesian won his match, which along with Dong Jiong's defeat of Park Sung-Woo eliminated the Korean team.

winners in bold, medallists highlighted in the color of their medal

Men's singles final

winners in bold, medallists highlighted in the color of their medal

Women's doubles quarterfinals

Two of the Danish pairs and one of the Chinese pairs were defeated in the quarterfinals.

winners in bold, medallists highlighted in the color of their medal

Women's doubles final

Ge and Gu's dominance of the tournament continued straight through the final.

winners in bold, medallists highlighted in the color of their medal

Men's doubles quarterfinals

winners in bold, medallists highlighted in the color of their medal

Men's doubles final

Mixed doubles quarterfinals

The Korean pairs won both of their matches, while the three Chinese pairs won two (losing only to the Koreans). This set up a pair of China-Korea semifinal matches.

Mixed doubles final

Park and Ra quickly got ahead of Kim and Gil in the final, winning the first set in a close game. The second set was more lopsided, with Kim and Gil winning handily. The final set, which determined the gold medal winners, was another close one. Gil's gold medal in this event completed her set of medals along with the bronze she had won in women's doubles in 1992 and the silver in women's doubles in 1996.