AirBadminton, a "new outdoor game", was launched by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) at Tianhe Gymnasium in Guangzhou, China on Wednesday.
On its website, BWF says that this ambitious project requires five years of development, and aims for people of all ages and abilities to be able to play the sport whether on hard courts, grass or sand in parks, streets, playgrounds or beaches around the world.
“This is a momentous occasion for badminton. Strategically, AirBadminton will allow us to fulfil our overall objective of putting a badminton racket in the hands of as many people as possible,” said BWF President and Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games men’s singles gold medallist, Poul-Erik Høyer.
“In the future, we see AirBadminton as an exciting, new, energetic version of the sport. Overall, the aim is to inspire more people to play more badminton in more places.”
Competitive badminton is usually done indoors because even a slight wind will affect the course of the shuttlecock. But in AirBadminton, players use a special shuttlecock called 'AirShuttle'.
BWF said that currently it is working with leading sports manufacturers to mass produce AirShuttle. The eventual aim is for the shuttlecock to be played in winds up to 12km per hour.
(Source: BadmintonWorld.tv)
Badminton is one of the most popular sports in the world with more than 300 million active players worldwide.
Currently Australia is ranked 25th in the world in the BWF World Team Ranking, where the top five nations are Japan, China, Indonesia, Denmark and Thailand respectively.
Badminton Australia in their 'Participation Strategic Plan 2015-2020' report says that badminton does not have a strong profile in the sporting culture of Australia, at least not sufficient to draw new participants to the sport in large numbers.
BWF World Team Rankings Source: bwfbadminton.com
In the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics survey of Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation in Australia, Badminton was declared to have approximately 100,000 participants nationwide. This placed badminton as 31st within the top 55 ranked sports by participant numbers.
In accordance with the BWF's overall objective of putting a badminton racket in the hands of as many people as possible around the world, AirBadminton may well now be played anywhere, including on the beaches of Australia.
