Badminton
BWF releases qualification criteria for 2024 Paris Olympics
Badminton body BWF has released the Olympic qualification criteria for 'Race to Paris' which is set to begin a year from now on 1st May 2023. It'll be curious to see which Indian shuttlers make the cut.
PV Sindhu (left-most), Lakshya Sen and Saina Nehwal will be eyeing to make the cut for the Paris Olympics (Source: Getty, BAI)
Badminton governing body BWF has released the qualification regulations for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics. The window of qualifications will open twelve months hence on 1st May 2023 and will continue till 28th April 2024.
The initial qualifiers to the prestigious Olympic Games will be determined by the ranking positions on the Race to Paris list as will be on 30th April 2024.
The Paris Olympics is scheduled to take place in the French capital city from 26th July to 11th August 2024.
The total quota for badminton remains 172 places (86 men and 86 women), which includes two host country places and four universality places in addition to the regular quota places of 166.
Further, each National Olympic Committee (NOC) has a maximum quota of eight places each for men and women.
At the Tokyo Olympics, India could only qualify four players - PV Sindhu, Sai Praneeth and the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
In 2024, India will hope to change that statistic and qualify more players. Former Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth had failed to make the cut for Tokyo due to low rankings - come 2024, they will also hope for a showing at the quadrennial Games.
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Badminton singles qualification criteria
In each singles discipline, every NOC has a maximum of two quota places if the players are ranked within the top 16 of the Race to Paris rankings on the qualification date, which is 30th April 2024, in this case.
There is a total of 35 quota places, one host country place, and two universality places, overall.
The universality places will be confirmed by the Tripartite Commission after the end of the qualification period. Each singles discipline must also have at least two athletes from each of the five Continental Confederations, provided the player is ranked within the top 250.
Doubles qualification criteria
In each doubles discipline, every NOC has a maximum of two quota places if both pairs are ranked within the top eight on the qualification date. There should be at least one pair from each of the five Continental Confederations, provided they are ranked within the top 50 on the qualification date.
Considering qualification in all events, no NOC can qualify athletes or pairs in more than two disciplines through the Continental Representation Place system, to ensure a proper balance.
For Indian badminton players, the 2024 Paris Olympics will be an interesting and exciting opportunity with a good field of internal competition already gearing up with Paris dreams in their eyes.
Aside from the likes of Nehwal, Srikanth and PV Sindhu, a lot of young talent is on the horizon with the likes of Lakshya Sen, Aakarshi Kashyap, the doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand and the pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila being strong contenders to qualify for the Games.
So far, India has three medals in badminton from the Olympics, out of which PV Sindhu takes credit for two while Nehwal takes credit for the very first one from the London Games in 2012.
