Badminton is an unlikely contender in Australia’s sporting landscape, with no Olympic medals on the board and no Commonwealth Games medals since 2010.
Key points:
- In the last two years, badminton has increased in popularity around Australia
- The uptick is mainly due to migrants from southern Asia, where the sport is particularly popular
- Local clubs say they are running out of spaces for new players, with their teams filling up quickly
But in recent years the sport has asserted itself around the country, with participation numbers growing from 226,000 in 2020 to just over 311,000 in 2022.
The game is extremely popular with people in southern Asia, and the sport’s results prove it — just seven of the 50 men’s and women’s singles medals have been awarded to non-Asian athletes since its introduction in the Olympics in 1992.
So as more migrants from Asia call Australia home and the sport’s participation numbers surge, clubs and facilities are struggling to keep up with the demand.
Clubs filling up soon after they’re created
In Canberra’s north, badminton is booming.
According to census data, 13 per cent of the population in the district of Gungahlin was born in south Asia, nearly double the 2016 figure.
Daniel Akkidasari has witnessed firsthand the growth of the sport as a result of migration.
When he moved to Canberra from India almost eight years ago, finding somewhere to play badminton was one of the first things he did.
After playing throughout his childhood, he knew the sport offered more than physical benefits to help him settle into his new hometown.
“This sport helped people from all the backgrounds to actually come together and have that sense of belonging to the community,” Mr Akkidasari said.
But a couple of years later, when he tried to sign his daughter up to play the sport he loved, the clubs were too full to accommodate her.
“I had to wait for six months to, like, almost one year.”
To help alleviate the pressures on other badminton clubs, Mr Akkidasari took matters into his own hands and created a club for juniors learning the sport.
Now, after a year of operation, he is in the same position — unable to take in new enrolments for the foreseeable future.
“I started off with just three people at the beginning of last year,” Mr Akkidasari said
“Now I’ve got more than 26 kids, and there are more enrolments coming in.
“I find it very hard to say ‘I’m sorry, we are full and cannot enrol them’.”
‘Not anywhere near meeting demand’
A lack of indoor sports facilities in the ACT means badminton is just one of many sports competing for space.
Trying to secure a time slot after school and on weekends is an almost impossible task that ACT Badminton Association (ACTBA) president Olaf Schuermann deals with weekly.
“When people come here with their kids, they call me up and I say, ‘sorry, the clubs are full,'” Mr Schuermann said.
“There are no venues, no multi-use sports centres for them to play privately, you have to join clubs and the clubs are full.
“Hiring school sports halls I don’t think works, it’s not anywhere near meeting demand.”
As for Mr Akkidasari, he just wants to give kids the chance to achieve their dreams.
“They want to play at a national level or an international level, so that’s the dreams I can see these kids are having and we need to nurture them.
“You don’t know, one of our players here in this club might be playing in the Olympics five to 10 years down the line.”
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