Badminton is a racquet sport where in both singles and doubles matches, opponents try to hit the shuttlecock across a five foot, one inch net. This sport has been an official Olympic sport for three decades starting in the 1992 Games in Barcelona. This is significantly shorter compared to European football, which started in the 1900 Games in Paris.
Although badminton itself has become a more popular sport recently, its viewership and credit is little compared to the bigger sports of football and basketball. For instance, the National Football League’s 2024 Super Bowl LVIII had a record breaking 123.4 million viewers. The National Basketball Association held its 2023 championship finals at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado, which amassed 11.64 million viewers as well. The coverage of professional badminton is drastically lower compared to these other competitive sports at 1.61 million viewers at the largest Badminton World Federation (BWF) world championships.
There are many factors contributing to the reason why badminton may not be as popular as the larger sports of American football, cricket or European football. The main reason is that winning a world championship in badminton grants you $15,000 in earnings compared to an average of $2.7 million salary of a European football course. Badminton streamed more in southern Asian countries is another factor as to why it may not seem popular. The US and most of Europe focuses on sports like football or basketball, leaving less attention for sports like badminton.
The lack of popularity can be seen in other schools around the district. Some schools have varying disparities in their teams as some only have small groups while other schools lack a badminton team entirely.
Walnut High School’s badminton team consists of a mere 22 boys and 25 girls competing in the Hacienda League. Despite the fact that the team had gone undefeated in its league last year, there should be more competition for the badminton team to face.
“I think we have a good shot of getting the same achievements we had last year. I think badminton as a sport and community has slowly grown in popularity, and I’m sure that it will continue,” varsity sophomore Benedict Tirtohadi said. “I am looking forward to going undefeated again with my new team.”
