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

Women’s doubles is a battle of wits, technique, and endurance. Top women’s doubles players have rock solid defense and precise control. To win major badminton tournaments, players need to be at their very best to overcome the fierce competition. Alas, youth fades away and players have less energy to continue their pursuit. So then, at what age do women’s doubles players do their best? In this post, we’ve gathered data in the top professional tournaments from 2000 to 2021 to determine what the prime age is for women’s doubles. Here are the results.

Statistically, the prime age for women’s doubles players is around 24 years old. Results indicate that women still perform very well between the ages of 22 and 27. However, historical results show less success prior to age 22 and after age 27. This suggests that women’s doubles players tend to achieve their peak performance in their mid 20s in the professional badminton scene.

To get these results, we collected the ages of all the women’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.

Women's Doubles Badminton Gold Medals By Age

As shown above, the most common women’s doubles gold medalist age is 24 years old. However, the average and median ages are 27.4 and 24.8 years old respectively. These numbers are significantly higher than the average and median ages of Women’s Singles Gold Medalists. This might be the case because doubles players do not have to cover as much area per player and have more opportunities to “rest” when their partner is taking the shots. Older players tend to have better technique and game sense but less endurance. This means that older players have a better chance of staying at the top of women’s doubles than in women’s singles.

Here’s all of the major statistics summarized:

Average	27.4
Median	24.8
Minimum	19
Maximum	34.5
Count	82
Standard Deviation	2.6

All England Results

Year	Winner	Age
2000	Ge Fei	24.5
2000	Gu Jun	25
2001	Gao Ling	22
2001	Huang Sui	19
2002	Gao Ling	23
2002	Huang Sui	20
2003	Gao Ling	24
2003	Huang Sui	21
2004	Gao Ling	25
2004	Huang Sui	22
2005	Gao Ling	26
2005	Huang Sui	23
2006	Gao Ling	27
2006	Huang Sui	24
2007	Wei Yili	25
2007	Zhang Yawen	22
2008	Lee Hyo-jung	27
2008	Lee Kyung-won	27
2009	Zhang Yawen	24
2009	Zhao Tingting	26.5
2010	Du Jing	26
2010	Yu Yang	24
2011	Wang Xiaoli	22
2011	Yu Yang	25
2012	Tian Qing	25.5
2012	Zhao Yunlei	25.5
2013	Wang Xiaoli	24
2013	Yu Yang	27
2014	Wang Xiaoli	25
2014	Yu Yang	28
2015	Bao Yixin	22.5
2015	Tang Yuanting	20.5
2016	Misaki Matsutomo	24
2016	Ayaka Takahashi	26
2017	Chang Ye-na	27.5
2017	Lee So-hee	24
2018	Kamilla Rytter Juhl	34.5
2018	Christinna Pedersen	32
2019	Chen Qing Chen	22
2019	Jia Yi Fan	22
2020	Yuki Fukushima	27
2020	Sayaka Hirota	25.5
2021	Mayu Matsumoto	25.5
2021	Wakana Nagahara	25

Average	24.7
Median	25
Minimum	19
Maximum	34.5
Count	44
Standard Deviation	2.8

World Championships and Olympic Games Results

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

Year	Winner	Age
2000	Gei Fei	25
2000	Gu Jun	25.5
2001	Gao Ling	22.5
2001	Huang Sui	19.5
2002	N/A
2003	Gao Ling	24.5
2003	Huang Sui	21.5
2004	Yang Wei	25.5
2004	Zhang Jiewen	23.5
2005	Yang Wei	26.5
2005	Zhang Jiewen	24.5
2006	Gao Ling	27.5
2006	Huang Sui	24.5
2007	Yang Wei	28.5
2007	Zhang Jiewen	26.5
2008	Du Jing	24
2008	Yu Yang	22.5
2009	Zhang Yawen	24.5
2009	Zhao Tingting	26.5
2010	Du Jing	26
2010	Yu Yang	24.5
2011	Wang Xiaoli	22
2011	Yu Yang	25.5
2012	Tian Qing	26
2012	Zhao Yunlei	26
2013	Wang Xiaoli	24
2013	Yu Yang	27.5
2014	Tian Qing	28
2014	Zhao Yunlei	28
2015	Tian Qing	29
2015	Zhao Yunlei	29
2016	Misaki Matsutomo	24.5
2016	Ayaka Takahashi	26.5
2017	Chen Qing Chen	20
2017	Jia Yi Fan	20
2018	Mayu Matsumoto	23
2018	Wakana Nagahara	22.5
2019	Mayu Matsumoto	24
2019	Wakana Nagahara	23.5
2020	N/A
2021	Greysia Polii	34
2021	Apriyani Rahayu	23

Average	24.8
Median	24.5
Minimum	19.5
Maximum	29
Count	38
Standard Deviation	2.4