What’s the Prime Age for Men’s Doubles Players?

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Men’s doubles is explosive and fast. Partnerships need the perfect balance of teamwork, speed, and raw power to be the very best. Now the question is, what age do men’s doubles players perform at their peak? In this post, we’ve gathered data in the top professional tournaments from 2000 to 2021 to determine what the prime age is for men’s doubles. Here are the results.

Men's Doubles Badminton Match
Men’s Doubles Badminton Match
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Statistically, the prime age for men’s doubles players is around 26 years old. Results indicate that men’s doubles players still perform very well up to age 34. Overall, players players from the ages of 23 to 34 have a good chance of winning a major title. Results drop off for ages less than 23 and higher than 34.

Prime Age for Men’s SinglesLink
Prime Age for Women’s SinglesLink
Prime Age for Men’s DoublesLink
Prime Age for Women’s DoublesLink
Prime Age for Mixed DoublesLink

To get these results, we collected the ages of all the men’s doubles badminton players that won gold medals at the Yonex All England, World Championships, and Olympic Games from 2000 to 2021. The ages that were used to calculate the results represent the ages at which the players won the tournaments. You can see all of the data visualized and organized in tables below.

Men's Doubles Badminton Gold Medals By Age

As shown above, the most common men’s doubles gold medalist age is 26 years old. However, the average and median ages are 27.4 and 26.5 years old respectively. The spread of the results are quite interesting since there are several spikes in medals as we go higher from the average of 26.5 years. Generally, we would expect a gradual decline from the peak like we see on the left of 26. However, we see spikes at 29 and 34, which seem a bit strange.

What might help explain these spikes is the fact that men’s doubles pairings come with 2 players. Having to work with another player requires a lot of teamwork and partners who have played longer with each other are probably more in sync with each other. Furthermore, having 2 players on a court make it so each player has to cover a smaller portion of the court. While doubles is usually faster paced, it does mean that doubles players do not need to travel as much and have more “breaks” when their partner is the one hitting the shuttle. This might help explain why there are more older players who have won gold medals than what we see in men’s singles.

Here’s all of the major statistics summarized:

Average27.4
Median26.5
Minimum19.5
Maximum36
Count82
Standard Deviation3.8

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All England Results

YearWinnerAge
2000Ha Tae-kwon25
2000Kim Dong-moon24.5
2001Tony Gunawan26
2001Halim Haryanto24.5
2002Ha Tae-kwon27
2002Kim Dong-moon26.5
2003Candra Wijaya27.5
2003Sigit Budiarto27.5
2004Jens Eriksen34
2004Martin Lundgaard Hansen31.5
2005Cai Yun25
2005Fu Haifeng22
2006Jens Eriksen36
2006Martin Lundgaard Hansen33.5
2007Koo Kien Keat21.5
2007Tan Boon Heong19.5
2008Jung Jae-sung25.5
2008Lee Yong-dae19.5
2009Cai Yun29
2009Fu Haifeng26
2010Lars Paaske34
2010Jonas Rasmussen32.5
2011Mathias Boe30.5
2011Carsten Mogensen27.5
2012Jung Jae-sung29.5
2012Lee Yong-dae23.5
2013Liu Xiaolong25
2013Qiu Zihan22
2014Mohammad Ahsan26.5
2014Hendra Setiawan29.5
2015Mathias Beo34.5
2015Carsten Mogensen31.5
2016Vladimir Ivanov28.5
2016Ivan Sozonov26.5
2017Marcus Fernaldi Gideon26
2017Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo21.5
2018Marcus Fernaldi Gideon27
2018Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo22.5
2019Mohammad Ahsan31.5
2019Hendra Setiawan34.5
2020Hiroyuki Endo33
2020Yuta Watanabe23
2021Hiroyuki Endo34
2021Yuta Watanabe24
2000Ha Tae-kwon, Kim Dong-moon25, 24.5
2001Tony Gunawan, Halim Haryanto26, 24.5
2002Ha Tae-kwon, Kim Dong-moon27, 26.5
2003Candra Wijaya, Sigit Budiarto27.5, 27.5
2004Jens Eriksen, Martin Lundgaard Hansen34, 31.5
2005Cai Yun, Fu Haifeng25, 22
2006Jens Eriksen, Martin Lundgaard Hansen36, 33.5
2007Koo Kien Keat, Tan Boon Heong21.5, 19.5
2008Jung Jae-sung, Lee Yong-dae25.5, 19.5
2009Cai Yun, Fu Haifeng29, 26
2010Lars Paaske, Jonas Rasmussen34, 32.5
2011Mathias Boe, Carsten Mogensen30.5, 27.5
2012Jung Jae-sung, Lee Yong-dae29.5, 23.5
2013Liu Xiaolong, Qiu Zihan25, 22
2014Mohammad Ahsan, Hendra Setiawan26.5, 29.5
2015Mathias Beo, Carsten Mogensen34.5, 31.5
2016Vladimir Ivanov, Ivan Sozonov28.5, 26.5
2017Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo26, 21.5
2018Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo27, 22.5
2019Mohammad Ahsan, Hendra Setiawan31.5, 34.5
2020Hiroyuki Endo, Yuta Watanabe33, 23
2021Hiroyuki Endo, Yuta Watanabe34, 24
YearWinnerAge
2000Ha Tae-kwon
Kim Dong-moon
25
24.5
2001Tony Gunawan
Halim Haryanto
26
24.5
2002Ha Tae-kwon
Kim Dong-moon
27
26.5
2003Candra Wijaya
Sigit Budiarto
27.5
27.5
2004Jens Eriksen
Martin Lundgaard Hansen
34
31.5
2005Cai Yun
Fu Haifeng
25
22
2006Jens Eriksen
Martin Lundgaard Hansen
36
33.5
2007Koo Kien Keat
Tan Boon Heong
21.5
19.5
2008Jung Jae-sung
Lee Yong-dae
25.5
19.5
2009Cai Yun
Fu Haifeng
29
26
2010Lars Paaske
Jonas Rasmussen
34
32.5
2011Mathias Boe
Carsten Mogensen
30.5
27.5
2012Jung Jae-sung
Lee Yong-dae
29.5
23.5
2013Liu Xiaolong
Qiu Zihan
25
22
2014Mohammad Ahsan
Hendra Setiawan
26.5
29.5
2015Mathias Beo
Carsten Mogensen
34.5
31.5
2016Vladimir Ivanov
Ivan Sozonov
28.5
26.5
2017Marcus Fernaldi Gideon
Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo
26
21.5
2018Marcus Fernaldi Gideon
Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo
27
22.5
2019Mohammad Ahsan
Hendra Setiawan
31.5
34.5
2020Hiroyuki Endo
Yuta Watanabe
33
23
2021Hiroyuki Endo
Yuta Watanabe
34
24
Average27.5
Median26.8
Minimum19.5
Maximum36
Count44
Standard Deviation4.4

World Championships and Olympic Games Results

Years 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 are for the Olympic Games.

YearWinnerAge
2000Tony Gunawan25.5
2000Candra Wijaya24
2001Tony Gunawan26.5
2001Halim Haryanto25
2002N/A
2003Lars Paaske27.5
2003n29
2004Ha Tae-kwon29.5
2004Kim Dong-moon29
2005Howard Bach26.5
2005Tony Gunawan30.5
2006Cai Yun26.5
2006Fu Haifeng23
2007Markis Kido24
2007Hendra Setiawan23
2008Markis Kido25
2008Hendra Setiawan24
2009Cai Yun29.5
2009Fu Haifeng25.5
2010Cai Yun30.5
2010Fu Haifeng26.5
2011Cai Yun31.5
2011Fu Haifeng27.5
2012Cai Yun32.5
2012Fu Haifeng28.5
2013Mohammad Ahsan26
2013Hendra Setiawan29
2014Ko Sung-hyun27
2014Shin Baek-cheol25
2015Mohammad Ahsan28
2015Hendra Setiawan31
2016Zhang Nan26.5
2016Fu Haifeng32.5
2017Liu Cheng25.5
2017Zhang Nan27.5
2018Li Junhui23.5
2018Liu Yuchen24
2019Mohammad Ahsan32
2019Hendra Setiawan35
2020N/A
2021Lee Yang26
2021Wang Chi-Lin26
YearWinnerAge
2000Tony Gunawan
Candra Wijaya
25.5
24
2001Tony Gunawan
Halim Haryanto
26.5
25
2002N/A
2003Lars Paaske
Jonas Rasmussen
27.5
26
2004Ha Tae-kwon
Kim Dong-moon
29.5
29
2005Howard Bach
Tony Gunawan
26.5
30.5
2006Cai Yun
Fu Haifeng
26.5
23
2007Markis Kido
Hendra Setiawan
24
23
2008Markis Kido
Hendra Setiawan
25
24
2009Cai Yun
Fu Haifeng
29.5
25.5
2010Cai Yun
Fu Haifeng
30.5
26.5
2011Cai Yun
Fu Haifeng
31.5
27.5
2012Cai Yun
Fu Haifeng
32.5
28.5
2013Mohammad Ahsan
Hendra Setiawan
26
29
2014Ko Sung-hyun
Shin Baek-cheol
27
25
2015Mohammad Ahsan
Hendra Setiawan
28
31
2016Zhang Nan
Fu Haifeng
26.5
32.5
2017Liu Cheng
Zhang Nan
25.5
27.5
2018Li Junhui
Liu Yuchen
23.5
24
2019Mohammad Ahsan
Hendra Setiawan
32
35
2020N/A
2021Lee Yang
Wang Chi-Lin
26
26
Average27.4
Median26.5
Minimum23
Maximum35
Count38
Standard Deviation3

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