Major honours
Founded in 1893, the Badminton Association was the world's first governing body for the sport, and in 1899 it created the All England Championships, giving badminton its first flagship event. England also drove the founding of the IBF in 1934. The national team now uses the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes, which opened in 1997 and also serves as Badminton England's headquarters. Yet the record of the nation that invented the sport thinned out long ago. World Championship golds total 2.5, combining a women's doubles title in Jakarta in 1980 (Nora Perry and Jane Webster), a mixed doubles title in Madrid in 2006 (Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms), and gold split with a foreign partner. There is no Olympic gold; England has taken a bronze at Sydney 2000 and a silver at Athens 2004. Funding took a further hit after UK Sport cut all badminton support following Rio 2016.
Record comparison
Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.
Club legends
Rivalry
Within Europe, Denmark has long been the great rival, and the very process by which the All England and Thomas Cup that England created were carried off first by Denmark and then by Asian nations has been this program's history. The inaugural 1949 Thomas Cup final was staged in Preston, England, only for the trophy to leave with Malaya — a fitting symbol.