BirdieGoldUSA
Birdie Gold USA
The Purpose
USA has been representing shuttle badminton (also just known as badminton) in the Summer Olympics since the sport was introduced in the Olympics in 1992.
Badminton is one of the few sports where USA has never won a medal in the Summer Olympics. (Fun Fact: USA won a silver medal in the Paralympics Badminton in Paris in 2024!)
With the support of USA Badminton, the governing body of Badminton in America, we have seen a steady growth of players at all levels over the last few years in the USA. However, there is a dearth of talent pool across the country in badminton compared to sports like swimming, where hundreds of athletes capable of competing at an international level exist in all major cities across the USA, which helps feed the talent pool from which a Ryan Lochte or a Katie Ledecky can emerge to win an Olympic gold medal.
This lack of a latent pool in badminton fundamentally stems from a lack of funding at all levels of the sport from juniors to professionals, which leads to a meteoric drop in number of players that follow badminton as a professional sport beyond high school.
BirdieGoldUSA was formed to tackle this problem.
The Mission
The mission for BirdieGoldUSA is to address the lack of funding and marketing in three critical areas that are key to developing a competitive pool of badminton players in America, listed below in order of precedence.
1. Funding for pro-athletes who qualify for and represent USA in a Challenger event or above. Note - A Challenger event is the smallest international event to collect qualifying points for a Badminton World Federation (BWF) international ranking
2. Funding and marketing for badminton coaching in high schools across the USA
3. Funding and marketing for badminton scholarships and coaching in undergraduate universities across the USA
Vision
The vision for BirdieGoldUSA is to bring shuttle badminton Olympic Gold to USA
