Before Badminton House, there was poona. Before poona, there was jeu de volant. Before that, battledore and shuttlecock, and, before that, Ti Jian Zi. It's not easy tracking the family lineage of the sport now known as badminton. As far back as the 5th century BC, the Chinese were playing Ti Jian Zi, or shuttle-kicking, a game played with the feet. The shuttlecock was there, but it remains unclear whether it led to the game of battledore and shuttlecock that arose about five centuries later in China, Japan, India and Greece. The battledores were the early versions of today's racquets....

Badminton has a surprisingly long history given its relatively recent introduction onto the Olympic scene. Badminton was invented long ago; its origins date back at least two thousand years to the game of battledore and shuttlecock played in ancient Greece, India and China. Badminton took its name from Badminton House in Gloucestershire, the home of the Duke of Beaufort, where the sport was played in the last century. By coincidence, Gloucestershire is now the base for the International Badminton Federation. Founded in 1934 with nine members - Canada, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales, membership of...

Badminton is a familiar and well-liked sport in the US, but predominantly is a fun game in the back yard or on the beach. We know that once Americans see the other badminton - international badminton, the world's fastest racket sport - they will want more. The Atlanta Olympics started to raise the sport's profile in the US. The event was a sell-out and became one of the "must-see" sports. Ex-President Jimmy Carter, Chelsea Clinton, Princess Anne and Paul Newman were among the celebrities who came to watch. David Broder of the Washington Post also came. After seeing the men's...