From October 31 to November 3, Indonesia will host the All-Star Badminton Invitational, gathering elite players from countries such as Korea, Thailand, Denmark, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, and more.
Participants:
Korea: Seo Seung Jae, Lee Yong Dae
Thailand: Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Ratchanok Intanon
Denmark: Viktor Axelsen, Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, Mathias Christiansen
Hong Kong: Lee Cheuk Yiu, Tang Chun Man, Tse Ying Suet
Indonesia: Hendra Setiawan, Greysia Polii, Fajar Alfian, Gideon Markus Fernaldi
Malaysia: Aaron Chia, Soh Wooi Yik, Goh Sze Fei, Nur Izzuddin, Chan Peng Soon, Toh Ee Wei
Japan: Kodai Naraoka, Aya Ohori, Yuta Watanabe, Nozomi Okuhara, Misaki Matsutomo
Lee Yong Dae (Hangul: 이용대, September 11, 1988), born in Hwasun-gun, Jeollanam-do, South Korea, is a South Korean male badminton player who specializes in doubles and won the mixed doubles gold medal in badminton at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Lee was selected to the Korean national badminton team at the age of 15, breaking the record of Park Joo-bong, who joined the team at the age of 16, and becoming the youngest member of the national team in history.
In July 2005, Lee represented Korea to participate in the Asian Youth Badminton Championships held in Jakarta, Indonesia, and helped the Korean men’s team to win the championship in the first men’s team match. In addition, he also won the men’s doubles championship and the mixed doubles championship with youths Cao Jianyu and Ha Jeong-eun, and was the only Triple Crown Champion of this year’s Asian Youth Championships. In the second half of the year, with the retirement of the main doubles players of the national team, the young Lee Yong Dae took up the responsibility of being the mainstay of the team, and he formed a new pairing with Jung Jae Sung, who is six years older than he is, from 2005 onwards. The Lee/Jung pairing had already achieved good results in the early days of their partnership, winning the German and Thailand Open titles in a row.
In November 2006, he represented Korea at the World Junior Badminton Championships in his home country, helping the Korean team win the mixed team title in the first team event, and also winning the men’s doubles title and the mixed doubles title with youths Cho Chien-yu and Ryu Yoo, the Triple Crown winners of the tournament.
In 2007, under the arrangement of the Korean Badminton Association (KBA), Lee Yong Dae was assigned to play mixed doubles with another veteran, Lee Hyo Jung, in addition to the men’s doubles event.
In January 2007, he and Jung Jae-sung competed in the Korean Badminton Super Tournament and won the International Men’s Doubles Championship and his first Super Tournament Men’s Doubles Championship by defeating his teammates Lee Jae-jin/Hwang Ji-wan in the Men’s Doubles final, 2-0 (21-16, 21-15).
In August 2007, Lee Yong Dae represented Korea at the World Badminton Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he was runner-up in the Men’s Doubles at the World Championships, defeating the No. 3 seeds of the tournament, Olympic champions Marquise Kido/Hendra Setiawan, 0-2 (19-21, 19-21) in the final.
In March 2008, Lee Yong Dae and Jung Jae Sung played in the All England Badminton Premier Tournament and won the All England Men’s Doubles Championship by defeating his teammates’ Hwang Ji-Wan/Lee Jae-Jin in the Men’s Doubles Final 2-1 (20-22, 21-19, 21-18). In April of the same year, he represented Korea at the Asian Badminton Championships in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, where he and Jung Jae-sung won the Asian Championships Men’s Doubles title. In May of the same year, he was named to the men’s doubles roster for the Thomas Cup, helping Korea win the men’s team second place.
In August 2008, Lee joined Jung Jae-sung and Lee Hyo-jung in the Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles events at the Beijing Olympics. Lee/Jung, who had been playing together for a long time and had climbed to No. 2 in the world rankings, were favored before the tournament and were seeded No. 3 by the organizers, but they unexpectedly lost to the veteran Danish duo of Jonas Rasmussen/Lars Pask 0-2 (16-21, 19-21) to go out in the first round. On the contrary, Lee Yong Dae/Lee Hyo Jung, who were more frowned upon before the tournament, beat New Zealand, Britain and Indonesia to reach the final. They eventually won the gold medal with a steady performance, beating the then world number one and two-time World Champions, Indonesia’s Nova Widianto/Liliana Nasir, 2-0 (21-11, 21-17).
After the Olympics, Lee Yong Dae was at his peak of form and won several tournaments with Jung Jae Sung and Lee Hyo Jung (China Open Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles, Hong Kong Open Men’s Doubles, WBF Super Series Finals Men’s Doubles, etc.).
In 2009, Lee continued his strong season, winning the Men’s Doubles in Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and the Grand Final, the Mixed Doubles in Korea, and the Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles in the China Open, as well as assisting the Korean National Team to win the second place in the Sudirman Cup.
However, his frequent participation in tournaments has caused him to suffer from a long-term injury to his right elbow. In 2010, he missed the Thomas Cup and had to focus on the Men’s Doubles tournament for a while to recover from his injury.
In 2011, Lee Yong Dae returned from his injury and won the Korea Premier, German Open, Thailand Open, China Masters, Denmark Premier and France Premier with Jung Jae Sung. In mixed doubles, with Lee Hyo-jung fading out after the Guangzhou Asian Games, the national team paired Lee Yong-dae and Ha Jeong-eun to form a new mixed doubles team to prepare for the London Olympics the following year.
In 2012, he won the men’s doubles title at the Indonesia Premier Super Tournament in June, surpassing Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng in points after the tournament and reaching the top of the world rankings for the first time.
In August 2012, Lee Yong Dae and Jung Jae Sung partner in the London Olympics badminton won the men’s doubles bronze medal.
In January 2014, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced that Lee Yong Dae and his teammate Kim Ki Jung had been penalized for violating World Anti-Doping Organization (WADA) rules by failing to notify the relevant associations of their whereabouts for out-of-competition doping control (i.e., “flying urinalysis”) three times in the past year. The penalty was imposed for a period of one year, effective January 23, 2014. Subsequently, the Korean Federation of Badminton (KFB) aggressively appealed the decision, accepting responsibility for the management problems and paying a fine of US$41,170 to the federation, which ultimately ruled in April 2014 that the sanction should be withdrawn because there was insufficient reason to conclude that the athlete had intentionally evaded doping control.
In the men’s doubles quarterfinals at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong defeated Malaysia’s Tan Wee Keong/Goh Wee Seng 1-2, missing out on the men’s doubles quarterfinals, with scores of 21-17, 18-21, and 19-21 in the three sets.
In 2016, he retired from badminton after winning the Korean Badminton Super Tournament and began organizing his family and entering the variety show business.
In November 2017, Lee Yong Dae once again teamed up with his old partner Ryu Yeon Seong to play in the Korean Badminton Masters. In the Men’s Doubles quarterfinals, he was defeated by his South Korean teammates’ Jung Jae-wook/Kim Ki-jung in a three-set contest (21-16, 11-21, 19-21).
