Beyond Olympics why Asian Games gold is pinnacle for China and Indonesia badminton

Only three country's men's singles shuttlers have won an Asian Games gold - China (8), Indonesia (7) and Malaysia (1, back in 1970). (Reuters Photo)

5 min readSep 20, 2026 10:29 AM IST First published on: Sep 20, 2026 at 10:29 AM IST

Former World champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn arrived in Delhi for the 2026 Worlds, and declared without batting an eyelid that it was a mere tune-up for the Asian Games, after a month. It wasn’t just that he had ticked the World’s box and he couldn’t possibly peak twice at the most important events of 2026. But that the Asiad for badminton is one of those prestige events that can put a balm on even a missed Olympic medal.

Kunlavut has silver at Paris. But the Nagoya Asiad gold is easily the biggest goals through the East Asian crescent from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia to Malaysia – enough to relegate a World Championship to a run-up test event.