All of the gold medals were won by players fromChina.[2] The Chinese team also collected two silvers and one bronze, to top the medal table with eight in total.Denmark finished in second place, with one silver and one bronze won.
For the first time there was a combination of group play and knockout stages in the Olympic badminton tournament, following its introduction at the2010 Youth Summer Olympics in Singapore.
All matches were the best of three games, with each game won by the first player to reach 21 points. If the score reached 20–20, the winner was the first player to lead by two points. If the score reached 29–29, the player who won the next point won the match.
The draw for the groups was held on 23 July 2012.[3]
The Olympic qualification period was between 2 May 2011 and 29 April 2012, and theBadminton World Federation rankings list, published on 3 May 2012, was used to allocate spots.[1] Nations could enter a maximum of three players. Three quota places if three players are ranked four or above, two if two players are ranked 16 or above and otherwise one quota place until the quota contingent of 38 is filled.
For each male player who qualifies in more than one discipline, an additional quota place in the men's singles becomes free. If no player from one continent can qualify, the best ranked player from this continent gets a quota place.[4]
On 1 August 2012, four teams were ejected from the competition (Wang Xiaoli andYu Yang ofChina,Jung Kyung-eun andKim Ha-na withHa Jung-eun andKim Min-jung, both playing forSouth Korea, andMeiliana Jauhari andGreysia Polii ofIndonesia) for "not using one's best efforts to win a match" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport" following round-robin matches the previous evening, during which the teams were accused of trying to lose in order to manipulate the draw.[5]
A total of 172 badminton players from 51 Olympic Committees (NOCs) from the five Continental Confederations will participate at the 2012 Summer Olympics.