Judy Devlin (later Judy Hashman) (born 22 October 1935 in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

) is a former

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

player who won more major international titles than any other player of her era. Devlin began playing badminton with her Irish-born father

Frank Devlin Joseph Francis Devlin (19 January 1900 – 27 October 1988) was an Irish male badminton player. Badminton career Devlin is the second most successful player ever in the All England Open Badminton Championships with 18 titles between 1925 ...

when she was seven in the Baltimore, Maryland region of the U.S.A. where her family had settled. Under her father's tutelage she developed a badminton game notable for its power, accuracy, and consistency. After dominating U.S. junior competition she won her first (adult) U.S. championship event, women's doubles, with her older sister Susan Devlin in 1953. This marked the beginning of the run of success listed below. She married Dick Hashman in 1960, living in England thereafter and eventually becoming a British citizen.

Career

Competing before the establishment of an official

world championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

for individual players and before badminton's entry into the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

, Devlin won 86 national and international titles. Among these are 31 titles in the USA, 8 titles in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, 7 titles in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, 4 titles in

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, 4 titles in Sweden, 3 titles in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, 3 titles in Jamaica, 2 titles in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, and a combined 19 titles in All England Open and English National competition. She played on U.S.

Uber Cup The Uber Cup, sometimes called the World Women's Team Championships, is a major international badminton competition contested by women's national badminton teams. First held in 1956–1957 and contested at three year intervals, it has been contes ...

teams that won three successive world championships (1957, 1960, 1963). In 1972 she won 2 titles (team and women's doubles) at the European Badminton Championships. She retired in 1973. From 1954 to 1967 Devlin dominated the women's singles event at the U.S. Open, winning 12 titles in 14 years, including 8 consecutive championships from 1956 to 1963. Judy Devlin is the third most successful player ever in the All England Badminton Championships, with 17 titles, 10 of them in women's singles and 7 in women's doubles. She appeared as a castaway on the

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

programme ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usua ...

'' on 21 March 1970, and was inducted into the Badminton Hall of Fame in 1997, together with her father. She has also been inducted into the U. S. Badminton Hall of Fame and the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame.

Achievements

European Championships

Record at the All England Championships

Other International tournaments

References

External links

Goucher College Athletics Hall of FameSports Biographies – Devlin, Judy (Mrs. Hashman)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devlin, Judy 1935 births Living people American female badminton players English female badminton players Goucher College alumni Sportspeople from Winnipeg 21st-century American women