BWF Awards

BWF Awards are awards given by the Badminton World Federation to players during a given season.

BWF Awards

Sport	Badminton
Awarded for	Excellence in Badminton
Sponsored by	Badminton World Federation
History
First award	1998
Editions	26
First winner	Peter Gade
Most wins	Lee Chong Wei Huang Yaqiong Leani Ratri Oktila
Most recent	Seo Seung-jae An Se-young

Players of the Year

From 1998 to 2007, this award was named Eddy Choong Player of the Year.

Year	Men's category	Women's category	Nationality	Ref
1998	Peter Gade	—	Denmark	[1]
1999	—	Camilla Martin	Denmark
2000	Candra Wijaya	—	Indonesia
2001	—	Gao Ling	China
2002	Kim Dong-moon	—	South Korea
2003	Kim Dong-moon	Ra Kyung-min	South Korea
2004	Taufik Hidayat	—	Indonesia
2005	Taufik Hidayat	—	Indonesia
2006	Lin Dan	—	China
2007	Lin Dan	—	China
2008	Lin Dan	Zhou Mi	China  Hong Kong
2009	Lee Chong Wei	Wang Yihan	Malaysia  China
2010	Lee Chong Wei	Wang Xin	Malaysia  China
2011	Lee Chong Wei	Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang	Malaysia  China	[2]
2012	Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng	Wang Yihan	Malaysia  China
2013	Lee Chong Wei	Li Xuerui	Malaysia  China	[3]
2014	Chen Long	Zhao Yunlei	China	[4]
2015	Chen Long	Carolina Marín	China  Spain
2016	Lee Chong Wei	Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi	Malaysia  Japan
2017	Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo	Chen Qingchen	Indonesia  China
2018	Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo	Huang Yaqiong	Indonesia  China
2019	Kento Momota	Huang Yaqiong	Japan  China	[5]
2020–2021	Viktor Axelsen	Tai Tzu-ying	Denmark  Chinese Taipei	[6]
2022	Viktor Axelsen	Akane Yamaguchi	Denmark  Japan	[7]
2023	Seo Seung-jae	An Se-young	South Korea	[8]

Pairs of the Year

Year	Men's doubles	Women's doubles	Mixed doubles	Ref
2020–2021	—	Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu	—
2022	Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong	—	—	[7]
2023	—	Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan  China	—	[8]

Players' Player of the Year

Year	Male Player	Female Player	Nationality	Ref
2024	TBA	TBA	TBA

Rising Star of the Year

This was awarded from 2008 to 2023 as the Most Promising Player of the Year. In 2024, it was renamed Rising Star of the Year.

Year	Player(s)	Nationality	Ref
2008	Saina Nehwal	India	[9]
2009	Ratchanok Intanon	Thailand	[1]
2010	Viktor Axelsen	Denmark
2011	Zulfadli Zulkiffli	Malaysia
2012	Kento Momota	Japan
2013	Akane Yamaguchi	Japan
2014	Akane Yamaguchi	Japan
2015	Zheng Siwei	China
2016	Chen Qingchen	China
2017	Chen Yufei	China
2018	Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong	China
2019	An Se-young	South Korea
2020–2021	Kunlavut Vitidsarn	Thailand
2022	Kodai Naraoka	Japan	[7]
2023	Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning	China	[8]

Para-players of the Year

This award was first presented in 2015.^[10]

Year	Men's singles	Women's singles	Nationality	Ref
2015	Lee Sam-seop	Helle Sofie Sagøy	South Korea  Norway	[5]
2016	Lucas Mazur	Karin Suter-Erath	France  Switzerland
2017	Kim Jung-jun	Amnouy Wetwithan	South Korea  Thailand
2018	Jack Shephard	Leani Ratri Oktila	England  Indonesia
2019	Qu Zimo	Leani Ratri Oktila	China  Indonesia
2020–2021	Qu Zimo	Leani Ratri Oktila	China  Indonesia
2022	Daiki Kajiwara	Manisha Ramadass	Japan  India	[7]
2023	Daiki Kajiwara	Rina Marlina	Japan  Indonesia

Para-pair of the Year

Year	Pair	Nationality	Ref
2020–2021	Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noël	France
2022	Thomas Wandschneider and Rick Cornell Hellman	Germany
2023	Hikmat Ramdani and Leani Ratri Oktila	Indonesia

Defunct categories

In 2024, BWF announced a brand-new structure for the awards. This led to a few categories becoming defunct.^[11]

Most Improved Player of the Year

Year	Player(s)	Nationality
2016	P. V. Sindhu	India
2017	Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota	Japan
2018	Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara	Japan
2019	Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong	South Korea
2020–2021	Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin	Chinese Taipei
2022	Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto	Indonesia
2023	Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin	China

Best-dressed Player of the Year

This award is given to the best-dressed player at the Gala held prior to the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals and its predecessor, the BWF Super Series Finals.

Year	Male Player	Female Player	Nationality	Ref
2013	Ko Sung-hyun	Tai Tzu-ying	South Korea  Chinese Taipei	[12]
2015	Chou Tien-chen	Ratchanok Intanon	Chinese Taipei  Thailand	[10]
2016	Viktor Axelsen	Woon Khe Wei	Denmark  Malaysia	[13]
2017	Srikanth Kidambi	Tai Tzu-ying	India  Chinese Taipei	[14]
2018	Shi Yuqi	P. V. Sindhu	China  India	[15]
2019	Viktor Axelsen	Ratchanok Intanon	Denmark  Thailand	[16]
2022	Prannoy H. S.	Busanan Ongbamrungphan	India  Thailand	[7]
2023	Chen Tang Jie	Jongkolphan Kititharakul	Malaysia  Thailand	[8]

References

1. Hearn, Don (11 December 2018). "Big winners awarded on BWF's 'Night of Nights'". badzine.net. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
2. "(Badminton) Chong Wei bags fifth BWF best male player of the year award". New Straits Times. Bernama. 13 December 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
3. "WINNERS SAVOUR BWF AWARDS". bwfbadminton.com. 26 May 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
4. "Badminton: Chen, Zhao, Yamaguchi honoured with BWF awards". sport-asia.com. 17 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
5. "Awards". corporate.bwfbadminton.com. Badminton World Federation. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
6. "BWF Player of the Year Award Winners 2020/2021". bwfbadminton.com. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
7. "AXELSEN, ZHENG AND HUANG REWARDED FOR STELLAR SEASONS". bwfbadminton.com. 5 December 2022. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
8. "YEAR-END HONOURS FOR SEO SEUNG JAE, AN SE YOUNG". bwfbadminton.com. 11 December 2023. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
9. "Saina named 'The most promising player of the year'". The Times of India. 8 December 2008. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
10. Sukumar, Dev (8 December 2015). "CHEN, MARIN CROWNED BWF PLAYERS OF THE YEAR". bwfbadminton.com. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
11. "New structure for BWF Awards from 2024". BWF.
12. Leung, Edwin (19 May 2013). "CHINESE PLAYERS IN SPOTLIGHT ON BWF AWARDS NIGHT". bwfbadminton.com. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
13. "CHONG WEI CREATES HISTORY AS ASIAN SHUTTLERS SWEEP BWF AWARDS". badmintonasia.org. 14 December 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
14. Banerjee, Sudeshna (12 December 2017). "Srikanth Kidambi wins 'Best Dressed Player' award at BWF Gala". Sportskeeda. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
15. Sukumar, Dev (11 December 2018). "YEAR-END HONOURS FOR MINIONS, HUANG YAQIONG". bwfbadminton.com. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
16. "'It's not easy,' says Thai ace on Finals eve". Bangkok Post. 11 December 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2019.