Ye Zhaoying (; born 7 May 1974) is a retired

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

player from

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Officially ranked as the number one women's singles player in the world for the first time in December 1995, she lost and regained that ranking several times during her career. Her best years as a player overlapped those of the slightly older

Susi Susanti Lucia Francisca "Susi" Susanti Haditono (; born 11 February 1971) is an Indonesian retired badminton player. Relatively small of stature, she combined quick and graceful movement with elegant shotmaking technique, and is regarded by many as one ...

and Bang Soo-hyun, in what some see as a "golden" era in women's badminton. She retired after the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, and in 2002, she started a new career as a golfer, trained at the Tian An Golf Club. She married former Chinese footballer and top-scoring striker Hao Haidong in summer 2019.

Career

Her main achievements include winning the World Grand Prix Finals in 1995, 1997 and 1999, the IBF World Championships in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

and

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, and the IBF World Cup in 1995. She played on Chinese teams that won the

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 ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

and

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and the

Sudirman Cup The Sudirman Cup is an international badminton mixed team competition contested by member countries of the Badminton World Federation, the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every two years since the inaugural tourn ...

in 1995 and 1997. She won the prestigious All-England title in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Her other titles include:

Asian Badminton Championships The Badminton Asia Championships (formerly Asian Badminton Championships until 2006) is a tournament organized by governing body Badminton Asia to crown the best badminton players in Asia. The tournament started in 1962 and is held annually sin ...

in 1992, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999; Japan Open in 1993, 1996, 1999; Indonesia Open in 1992, 1993;

Denmark Open The Denmark Open, or formerly known as Danish Open, is an annual badminton tournament held in Denmark and organized by Badminton Denmark. The Denmark Open was part of the BWF Super Series Premier from 2011 to 2017. BWF categorised it as one ...

in 1993; Hong Kong Open in 1993; Asian Cup of badminton in 1994; China Open in 1995;

Swedish Open The Swedish Open is a professional tennis tournament held in Båstad, Sweden. It is played on outdoor clay courts in July. The men's event (sponsored by Skistar) is an ATP Tour 250 tournament on the ATP Tour. The women's event (sponsored by ...

in 1995;

US Open U.S. Open or US Open are open championship sporting tournaments that are hosted in the United States and in which anyone, especially amateur and professional, or American and non-American, may compete. The term may also be applied to non-sporting ev ...

in 1995; Singapore Open in 1992, 1998, 1999; Thailand Open in 2000 . She was a member of the Chinese Women's Badminton Team that won the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

in 1998. In addition, she earned a bronze medal in the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, having been upset in the quarterfinals of the '96 Games in Atlanta. Ye Zhaoying was elected to the World Badminton Hall of Fame in 2009.

Personal life

Ye married former top footballer

Hao Haidong Hao Haidong (; born 9 May 1970) is a Chinese former international footballer. He currently holds the record for being China's top goalscorer. As a player he represented Bayi Football Team, Dalian Shide and Sheffield United in a career that ...

in summer 2019. As of present, she and Hao reside in Málaga, Spain.

Political views and controversy

On the 31st anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in 2020, Hao uploaded a video calling for the overthrow of the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

. Afterwards the couple's Weibo accounts were deleted; their online profiles on major portals in China – Sina Sports, Tencent Sport and Baidu – have also been deleted. They moved to Spain, living in exile. Two years later, in an interview with TV 2 Sport with

Camilla Martin Camilla Martin Nygaard (née Martin; born 23 March 1974) is a Danish retired badminton player. She and Lene Køppen, who played two decades earlier, are the only Danish women to have won both the All England and World Championships singles t ...

, Ye stated that the Chinese coaches ordered her to lose in the semi-final match at the

2000 Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

, in order for her teammate,

Gong Zhichao Gong Zhichao (; born 15 December 1977) is a former badminton player from the People's Republic of China. Career Gong was one of the world's leading women's singles players between her first international titles in 1996 and her retirement in 2 ...

to win the title for China, as she was thought to be able to defeat Martin in the final. She ended up losing in 2 sets to Gong in the semi-final, and went on to win the bronze medal after defeating Dai Yun in the playoff. In the interview, Ye strongly criticized the Chinese system for doing so, and stated that if she had won the match in the semi-final and lost in the final, "all of China" would have considered her a "traitor", adding on that her previous victories would have been "meaningless", had she not won the gold for China. In response, the Chinese embassy in Denmark issued a statement, stating that Ye "has always been anti-China. Her statements don't deserve a response." After the entire incident in 2020, family and friends have turned their backs on Hao and Ye, and that they have been blocked by their former teammates on Chinese social messaging platform

WeChat WeChat or Weixin in Chinese ( zh, c=微信, p=Wēixìn , l=micro-message) is an instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment mobile app, app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile a ...

Achievements

Olympic Games

''Women's singles''

World Championships

''Women's singles''

World Cup

''Women's singles''

Asian Games

''Women's singles''

Asian Championships

''Women's singles''

Asian Cup

''Women's singles''

IBF World Grand Prix (21 titles, 21 runners-up)

The World Badminton Grand Prix sanctioned by International Badminton Federation (IBF) since 1983. ''Women's singles'' ''Women's doubles''

Record against selected opponents

Record against year-end Finals finalists, World Championships semi-finalists, and Olympic quarter-finalists.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ye, Zhaoying 1974 births Living people Sportspeople from Hangzhou Badminton players from Zhejiang Chinese female badminton players Badminton players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Badminton players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic badminton players for China Olympic bronze medalists for China Olympic medalists in badminton Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Badminton players at the 1994 Asian Games Badminton players at the 1998 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for China Asian Games bronze medalists for China Asian Games medalists in badminton Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games World No. 1 badminton players Chinese anti-communists