Sports Equipment

• Rackets

There are many different types of materials used in the manufacturing of badminton rackets. There are many different materials ranging from carbon fiber composite (graphite reinforced plastic) to solid steel. Carbon fiber has an excellent strength to weight ratio, is stiff, and gives excellent energy transfer. Before carbon fiber rackets were made of light metals such as aluminum. Earlier rackets were made out of wood but are no longer manufactured because of the weight. The badminton racket is made to be very light. The rackets should weigh between 79 and 91 grams. The design of the rackets are limited to the rules of badminton. The oval head shape is still available but the new isometric head shape is now available.

• Strings

Babminton strings are high performance strings that range between 0.65 to 0.73 millimeters thickness. The tension on the strings is normally between 18 to 36 lbs. Recreational players like to string at a lower tension. It is often said that higher tension improves control where lower tension provides more power. This is not true. The higher tension causes the shuttle to slip off the racket which makes it harder to control and hit the shot accurately. The best way to select the right tension is to experiment.

•  Shuttlecocks

Shuttlecocks or shuttles is a high projectile with an open shape: the cone is formed from 16 overlapping goose feathers embeded into a rounded cork base. the cork is covered with thin leather or synthetic material. Shuttles with plastic or nylon skirts are normally uesed by recreational players not only because of the cost but also because the feather type break more easily. The nylon shuttle corks are made of a hard sponge instead of cork. Shuttles also come in different types, shuttles with a green stripe(slow speed), blue (medium speed), and red ( fast speed).  In colder wheather a slower one is used and in hotter a faster one is used.

• Shoes

Badminton shoes are lightweight and made of a high grip- non marking material. The shoes have very little laderial support. A high level of laderial support are used for activities where laderial movement is not expected. High laderial support will not be able to support the foot in badminton and could cause collapse at the point where the supports fail because the ankles are not ready for the sudden side movement which could cause sprained ankles and other injuries. For this reason a person should choose badminton shoes rather than general training shoes or running shoes. Badminton shoes have a very slim sole, lowering the centre of gravity, therefore causing less injuries. A person should also learn the proper footwork with the knee and foot in alignment on all lunges.

History
The 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona saw the first appearance of badminton. 4 events were held, with singles and doubles events for both men and women. Four medals were awarded in each event, including two bronzes. The next Olympiad, Atlanta 1996, had 5 events with the addition of mixed doubles. There was also now a playoff between the two semifinal losers to determine the sole winner of the bronze medal. That format has been used for the 2000 and the 2004 Summer Olympics.

China leads the medals won with 8 Gold,4 silver, and 10 Bronze

South Korea is next with 5 Gold, 6 Silver and 3 Bronze

Indonesia is next with 5 Gold, 5 Silver, and 5 Bronze

Denmark  has 1 Gold, 1 Silver, and 2 Bronze

Malaysia has ) Gold, 1 Silver, and 2 Bronze

Great Britain Has 0 Gold, 1 Silver, and 1 Bronze

The Netherlands has only 1 Silver medal

Written in Part with Wikipedia:

Opening ceremony

Main article: 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing will be held in the Beijing National Stadium, and begin at 8:00pm CST (12:00 UTC) on 8 August 2008. It has been announced that Canada’s Celine Dion and Taiwan’s Jay Chou would perform during the opening ceremony.

On July 21, NBC announced the Opening Ceremony would include performances by a cast of 15,000 and declared it would be the most spectacular Olympics Opening Ceremony ever produced.

Sports

This pictogram depicts Athletics.

Medals of the 2008 Summer Olympics: silver (left), gold (center), bronze (right)

The program for the Beijing 2008 Games is quite similar to that of the Athens Games held in 2004. The 2008 Olympics will see the return of 28 sports, and will hold 302 events (165 men’s events, 127 women’s events, and 10 mixed events), one event more in total than in Athens.

Overall 9 new events will be held, which include 2 from the new cycling discipline of BMX. Women will compete in the 3000 m steeplechase for the first time. In addition, marathon swimming events for men and women, over the distance of 10 kilometres, will be added to the swimming discipline. Team events (men and women) in table tennis will replace the doubles events. In fencing, women’s team foil and women’s team sabre will replace men’s team foil and women’s team epee.

The Beijing Organizing Committee have released pictograms of the 35 Olympic disciplines. This set of sport icons is named the beauty of seal characters, due to each pictogram’s likeness to Chinese seal script.

The following are the sports to be contested at these Games. The number of events to be contested in each sport is indicated in parentheses.

Written in part with Wikipedia: