Badminton in Austria is trendy and growing at a healthy rate. While still a comparatively small sport, badminton seems well organized in Austria. The progress of badminton in Austria is driven by a group of highly motivated volunteers and club people.
Growth in membership and badminton clubs
The official report from the Austria Badminton Association indicates a growth of 3,2% in membership in the last year. This brings the total membership to 4.551. Two new clubs were added in 2023 and the number of female participation has been increasing – the current percentage of female badminton players in Austria now stands at 35%.
WAT Simmering is currently the largest Austrian Badminton Club. It is located in Vienna and has been enjoying a surge in membership in recent years. The video below shows excerpts from a 2. Bundesliga match against WBH Wien.
How is badminton organized in Austria?
The Austrian Badminton Association, or ÖBV for short, consists of 9 regional associations with a total of app. 121 clubs and 4,551 registered members, of which around 3,000 have a playing license.
In addition to local and regional club sports, members receive targeted performance-oriented training in 3 federal youth performance centers (BNLZ) in the West (Dornbirn), South (Graz), and North (Linz) of Austria and ultimately for the national squad in the federal performance center (BLZ) in Vienna.
There are several levels of competition for club teams. The highest level of team competition happens in the 1. Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga.
At the individual level, the Austrian Badminton Association facilitates local, regional, and national badminton tournaments in Austria. Player progress is managed through a National Ranking system, which you can explore here.
Badminton in Austria seems perfectly positioned to improve and grow badminton over the coming years.
Austrian badminton players competing internationally
At the moment, most people cannot name one Austrian badminton player. But that may change over the coming years. The ÖBV is dedicated to improving the competitive level of Austrian badminton.
As of June 2024, the highest-ranked Austrian men’s singles players on the BWF World Ranking are
| World Rank | Player | POINTS | COUNTRY | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97 | AUT | Collins Valentine FILIMON | 86887 | 19000 | Austria |
| 137 | AUT | Luka WRABER | 56274 | 13523 | Austria |
| 182 | AUT | Wolfgang GNEDT | 61916 | 10033 | Austria |
| 543 | AUT | Kai NIEDERHUBER | 66003 | 1791 | Austria |
| 673 | AUT | Michael TOMIC | 88075 | 1140 | Austria |
At the moment Austria is not ranked in the top 100 in either ladies’ singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, or mixed doubles. So there is something to work on for the Austrian National Team and all the local coaches involved at the club level.
Badminton in Austria – historical facts
Organized badminton came to Austria rather late. The national association was founded in 1957. That’s around 60 years after Badminton England was founded.
Austria made their first international team appearance when the mixed team competed at the 1962 Helvetia Cup. The team did well to achieve third place in their first time competing internationally
Unfortunately, Austria has never qualified for either the Uber Cup or Thomas Cup, but they have participated in the Sudirman Cup a total of 10 times as of 2024 with 18th place in 1995 being their best result.
Jürgen Koch (born 1973) is probably the highest-ranked Austrian badminton player in men’s singles. His highest world ranking was at number 29 in 2010.
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So nice to hear that badminton is growing in Austria. Hoping the trend will continue.