Shao Chieh Cheng

Character Introduction

Shao Chieh Cheng is a female badminton player from Chinese Taipei.

Born into a sports family, Cheng’s father, Cheng Ching-huei, is a teacher and badminton coach at Shezi Elementary School. Cheng and her siblings (sister Cheng Hsiao-yun and brother Cheng Hao-yu) learned badminton from their father from a young age and all became badminton players as adults.

Cheng attended Shezi Elementary School, Cheng Yuan Junior High School, Jinou Girls’ High School, and later National Taiwan Normal University, all of which are traditional badminton powerhouses. In this environment, she won her first women’s singles title in the fifth grade of elementary school.

In 2011, at the World Badminton Championships held in London, Cheng advanced to the final by defeating Germany’s Julian Schenk, who was ranked 10th in the world at the time. In the final, she lost to China’s Wang Yihan, who was ranked 2nd in the world, and earned a silver medal. This achievement marked her personal best at the World Championships and matched the best result for the Taiwan badminton team at the World Championships, alongside Chen Feng’s silver medal in men’s singles in 1999.

In July 2012, Cheng represented Chinese Taipei at the London Olympics in women’s singles. She advanced past the group stage by defeating Austria’s Simone Prutsch and Turkey’s Neslihan Yigit. In the knockout stage, she won 2-0 (21-18, 21-10) against Singapore’s Gu Juan. However, she lost 0-2 (14-21, 11-21) to the top seed, China’s Wang Yihan, in the quarterfinals, equaling her best result of reaching the quarterfinals at the Athens Olympics.

During the year, Cheng was affected by a groin injury, which was later diagnosed as a hernia. After the London Olympics, she returned to Taiwan for surgery and only resumed competing in the Korea Open after over three months of rest.

Subsequently, Cheng struggled to return to the court due to knee injuries. After undergoing knee cartilage surgery, she remained in rehabilitation. By 2015, her right knee injury recurred, requiring another surgery, forcing her to temporarily stop playing. She stated that although she wished to continue playing, at the age of 29, competing internationally would be challenging, and she might only participate in domestic ranking events and amateur tournaments in the future.