My prediction: MS : Shi Yuqi, Viktor, Christie, Li Shifeng. WS : An Se Young, Yufei, Marin, Tunjung MD : Same as Ben’s prediction + Aron/Sowi WD : Same as Ben’s prediction + Liu/Tang XD : Same as Ben’s prediction + Yuta/Arisa Noted : the order doesn’t represent the colour of the medal, just list of players who is going to be advancing to sf.

I definitely see Kunlavut getting at least bronze. He’s got very good nerves in high pressure finals. I think An Se Young is almost a guaranteed gold…If no injury.

I do hope TTY could win a gold before retiring, or at least a medal .... depends on her injury too, but who knows, fingers crossed

Hey ben congrats on 5k. Honestly I have no idea how your channel has not blown up even more. The quality and depth of your stories is simply amazing. Keep up the good work and I'm sure there are even more great things to come. BWF please recognise this man and his work !!!!!

Keep it coming, we all love and appreciate your content very much!

Thank you so much for answering my questions about your researching process, it’s very helpful.

Congratulations on the 5k subscribers! You deserve a lot more than this. We really enjoy the long-form content. It's a lot of work for you, but it's worth the effort and far more satisfying and better than the unclear information in short content. Thanks for the efforts you're putting in, sir.

Just found your channel through kento momota video. Loved it❤️. Keep up the good work👍🏼

Thank you, Ben, for always being hardworking and productive for the badminton world. Congratulations on the 5K subs as well!!!

great video as always! There will be surprises in Olympics for sure.

Your Videos are great I started playing Badminton recently that how I came across your Channel. I would like to watch and learn the Different Eras of badminton and power house countries during that Era it would awesome to know about it.

Congratulations on 5k Ben, keep up the great work you're doing. Would love to see a video with your perspective on why badminton has such little PR and why it takes so long for things to improve in the game. Eg umpiring, technology etc. But I gather it may be a bit hard to comment since you make videos for Bwf as well.

Enjoyed the Q&A Ben. You definitely deserve more subscribers in my eyes. One of my favourite channels on KZfaq! Interested to know how much of a factor the KZfaq algorithm plays in your choice of videos. For instance, I know any videos regarding Indonesian badminton will get several more views than about badminton from eras gone by. Does that play on your mind, or do you just go with stories you love?

I am an avid watcher of your youtube channel. Infact it's you channel that brought me closer to the game.

I have no doubt your channel will hit 10k this year, Ben 😎

I took my coaching badges about 25 years ago, starting with the Leaders Badge, Part 1, Level 2 and then Level 3. People believe that playing is hard! Coaching is no less daunting, it's just a different kind of strain. You work with, and prepare your players, as best you can and then you have to sit helplessly on the sidelines and hope that they are able to go to court and produce a performance that you'll both be celebrating afterward or maybe it just won't come right on the day and you'll be trying to move them past their disappointment and find the positives. I enjoyed it but it was hard and there is an emotional toll so I stopped some years ago now.

congrats on 5k!! it will be sad this year after olympics with the retirements, but expecting some amazing content (TTY vid when she retires? 🥺)

Thanks Vice Captain of the Red Hair Pirates! Your video on Kento Momota made me cry, it means a lot for me as a loyal Momota fan!

Means a lot to me you made that video about Kento Momota. Can't say any better, it was so great. Thank you, Ben. 😭♥️🙌

Men’s doubles predictions made sense, although I think that Kang/Seo have had questionable performances this year and recently we’ve had great upcoming potential in He/Ren

I hope Ratchanok wins an Olympic Medal this time because its her dream and also she is the only batch memeber of 2010 girls whom all of em have Olympic Medals also Hope TTY wins Oly Gold given she has not a single Major tittle ...so hope ratchanok wins her first oly medal and TTY her first major tittle

I agree with your picks on WS especially about Marin bcz she was the defending champion @Tokyo but couldn't participate due to ACL injury. And now she rose back to a different level by entering finals of World championships 2023, World tour finals , winning All England 2024.. She will be a very tough contender as she has won almost every player since last year except An se young..

I mean honestly Ben, for your research part, you can also ask AI, like Chat GPT. Maybe it can help translating articles and of course you can always ask it for its sources and then do the research yourself. Just an Idea i had, might also be not up to your standarts. But definetly keep up the good work! Love the videos, love from germany :)

Congrats on 5k! (before I start, Sorry, this comment is gonna be looong :D (I like to write)) I watched the Korean men singles decline vid, and especially this last Thomas Cup I was speculating about that. There were two men singles games, where it hit actually. I guess who watched Koreans play, saw them, and heard the commentators pretty clearly. The comments repeated my own thoughts, 'where were those players kept and why didn't they get more experience in official international tournaments.' I really liked that you had Koreans in your predictions, sadly MS isn't in it, and that's logical, that area in the Korean national team is sadly, for some reason left not attended. Though I could speculate on that topic, I do not know the facts for sure, and it would be psychological speculation, not an insider one... But MD, XD, WD and WS, it's nice to have hope for the Korean team. The thing I'm debating, while at the same time, I'm of course hoping for good results on the Olympics, that over time I've been watching the Korean national team compete, and participate in international tournaments, smaller and bigger like the Thomas Cup, Asian games, W championships, the Olympics. Yes, for many and often we see Koreans on the podium, but it's not consistent or for sure in the highest competitions. Too often in the highest one's they have a sad beginning or weird mental collapse just in quarter final or semis, which sometimes* makes no sense for me. I'm leaving out injuries right now, but there is some inconsistencies that make me wonder... *this is absolutely not taking the wins away from other players, whichever skill level or nationality. I only speculate about Korean's winning mentality, where I see some patterns over the years. (even from AnSY's coach) I remember that before Rio, Lee YD pointed out something like that in a variety show's interview. Not these exact words, but the amazing career he had and he pointed out competitions that didn't go that well, especially after or during an amazing continuous results period, which is up in the tournament software. And by that time, I had already noticed it from their different competitions. After LYD retired, I noticed it from other players, pairs also. This is not that there are not some/many amazing-awesome huge wins, like Seo Sung Jae, but it's something I would put down into a player's winning mentality... or even the national team's winning mentality. There is on video I would like to see, a deepdive into Korean national team firing it's coaches in 2018, the story before and after this happened, the effect on the national team, players. Why? Because, before that happened there were a few reports, about the 2017 Sudirman Cup, about the coach Kang paying for the players from his own pockets, because the BKA funding wasn't enough. Also the BKA decision to put young inexperienced players into the 2018 Asian games. There are a few more storied that have gotten out, but it would be nice to see it researched and shown as a whole to understand more about Korean badminton progression. I mentioned Korean national team's winning mentality or somewhat the lack of it... I don't mean, the players/pairs don't win or don't like winning or whatever this comment makes you think... but mentally, and psychologically there seems to be an issue with competitions. If there is or was a problem in the organization, which came out in 2017-2018 in news, if the problem was then, then it's presumable it was before and might be after. In every organization, like the national team, the BKA, or whichever other, there are always politics, communication and other issues. As a Korean badminton players fan, I'm just interested, what could be the issues and results and what are the ways they could improve... Also, I did met LYD once in All England(2016), after a loss, Lee/Yoo lost to Ivanov/Sozonov, as I was a fan already I was devastated. But meeting him ab 2h later, he did not speak much in English and I spoke only hesitant Korean at that time, he seemed quiet and reserved. Now I know that he is rather funny and he likes to talk a lot, his youtube channel and his relaxed manner and teasing and comments on court(without the official competition pressure) show that quite well. But still, I did ask myself, watching him then and after, what was the pressure and what kind of pressure it was from the national team's leaders, coaches around him...

On top of my head my contenders will also be shi yuqi, viktor and kunlavut but there could be a upset yet these are frontrunners as of now

Thank god some one is promoting badminton properly.....

This likely is Akane's final Olympics, and I dearly hope she can medal. Sadly, her condition has been really bad ever since last year where she overworked herself by joining too many tournaments. I'm not sure she could get back in form on time. It just seems so unlikely now. Regardless, I will be cheering for her and hope for the best.

Can you make a video about the 4 legends ( Taufik, Lin Dan, Lee Chong Wei and Peter Gade? Maybe in the form of a series

Hi Ben, another curious case, if you could do a video on Minions, the meteoric rise and a fairly strange ending to their careers

Ms: Shi yuqi, Victor and Lakshya Ws: ASY, Marin and Chen/TTY Md: Liang/Wang, Kang/Seo and Alfian/Ardianto Wd: Baek/Lee, Chen/Jia and Rahayu/Ramadanti Xd: Zhang/Huang, Seo/Chae, Feng/Huang

men's singles : 1.SHI YU QI ,2.ANTONSON 3.LAKSHYA SEN /// WS : 1.AKANE YAMAGUCHI ,2.AN SE YOUNG, 3.TTY /// MD:1. SATHWIK-CHIRAG ,2.WANG-LIANG.3.SEO-KANG ////WD : 1.CHEN-JIA ,NAMI-SHIDA,BEAK-LEE////XD: 1.ZENG-HUANG ,,2.YUTA-ARISA ,,3.DICHIAPOL-SAPSIRI

You just have to do a video on Taufik Hidayat and bringout his genius and contribution to the game in the form of a story.

I guess Yuta/Arisa crossed your mind a bit after saying Seo/Chae 🤣, but yeah i agree this olympic is the most open olympics.

Men's singles is the hardest to predict.. their performance changes so quickly within a month. By far the most consistent one is Shi Yuqi.

Yo Ben, congrats for your milestone, i have some question for you as a badminton buddy. 1st, we all know that badminton developed in mid-19th century by expatriate officer of british india, badminton grew at that time in England, even two of most prestigious championship Thomas & Uber cup are from England, and All England of course, so why in this time Badminton became less known in England?. 2nd, why the heck Badminton prize money is so much less than other racquet sport i.e Tennis?, we run twice as much, we sweat twice as much, it's more fast paced game than any other racquet sport, we literally bleed and die on court i.e Markis "The Gladiator" Kido.

I have same doremon teddy as you haha

Men's Single Olympic Champion is Viktor Axelsen Denmark 🇩🇰 🥇🏆👍💪❤️🔥

Ace and Sabo on the shelf but no 'Ben Beckman', first mate of the Redhair pirates!?

Just wondering, why do you still continue to make Indonesian subtitles after the Minions video? Not a complain or anything, just curious. CONGRATS ON THE 5K subscribers!!

Shoutout to your wife for the translations!!!

I feel CYF could win another gold. TTY, Yamaguchi, ASY, and Marin are all still injured. I can see Tunjung bagging Bronze.

Md is most predictable : Satchi Kang seo Liang wang,, but upset can happens with liang and kang seo

Hi Ben, on the subject of playing badminton, why do retired national/international players not enter more masters tournaments? For example, would you consider entering all the Gold Masters tournaments and there was the All England Masters a couple of months ago too?

MS: VA,Shi-Yuqi,JChristie WS: ASY,CYF, AYAMGUCHI MD: LIANG&WC, RR&CS, SEO&KANG WD:SHIDA&MYAMA, CHEN&JIA, KIM&KONG XD: ZHENG&HUANG, SEO&CHAE, DECHAPOL&SAPISREE

It will be heartbreak if TTY doesn't get gold.

Axelsen dodging another tournament, the Indonesia Open, the third Super 1000 event of the year... I am almost certain he'll play either the Australia Open or the Canada Open, one of the Super 500 events, depending on the draws. which would have been really rare for the Olympic champ for the past couple of years. He won the Malaysia Open title with only one tough match against Lee Zii Jia in the final , and basically, most of the players that are thought to could be challenging him, he literally needed a decider to "trick his inexperienced new coming Axelsen challengers into thinking taking a game from him ultimately means vulnerability to the now a little shaky Danish King"... and there are many more players that could be more challenging in his way to defend his Olympic title are simply not given the opportunity to gain more knowledge or confidence by playing against him more before the games... or, they just got to "piss off" the "king" once, and once only at least for this year so far. For sure. Axelsen's confidence or his mentality isn't as unbreakable as many would have thought even when he decides to play an "Axelsen challenger"...

Badminton obviously needs English speaking youtubers. My kid is 11 and an absolute badminton psycho, but there has to be content for him to follow and help expand the international badminton community. Good luck, mate!

Hi Ben, could you do a video about the differences between badminton and other, more popular sports such as basketball, football (soccer), tennis, etc. and why badminton seems unable to (or at least extremely slow to) grow in Europe and North America? Badminton players represent their nations in competitions. Meanwhile, in more popular sports, the athletes represent themselves as individuals or their clubs. Does this hinder badminton players' ability to garner fans outside of their own countries? Does this, in return, hinder badminton as a sport to achieve mainstream status? Badminton clothings and shoes are arguably ugly. I've seen many people wear football jersey or tennis shoes in casual setups but I seldom see anyone (even those who actively play badminton) wear anything badminton related away from the court. Does this play a role? I see a lot of similarities in this between badminton and table tennis, another sport that has a relatively small fanbase.

I thought Viktor might have chance to exceed Lindan's achievement someday, but more and more unlikely to happen, even if he can claim gold in this Olympics, still not enough to get close to Lin Dan's three more world championships, let alone Surdiman Cup and Thomas Cup gold medals. We might not have another Lin Dan in a long long time.

Do you have an updated prediction now that the asia tour is over?

Ms- Axelsen Md - Liang / Wang . Ws - Chen yufei Wd - Chen / Jia . Xd - zheng / Huang . For me Shiyuqi can be good. But he is still not good enough against Axelsen unless Lzj defeat Axelsen in semi which is 99.9 % .

could you please do a video on lee zii jia....he is very underrated in malaysia and also the rest of the world

Let’s see how accurate your prediction is. But the Olympics are different; Seed 1 tends to grab non-gold medals. Indonesia won gold medals in five sectors while its players were always not even in the top 8 seed. I’ll come back to this comment in 10 weeks.

You sometimes look and sound like Martin Freeman😂😂

Miyazaki for gold 2028*

Don't forget P V Sindhu....she's the dark horse this time