The World University Games are organized by the International University Sports Federation. A total of 165 nations are a part of the federation and the first Summer Games of the World University Games were held in 1959. Each competition features student athletes between 17 to 25 years of age.
Badminton is one of the mandatory events in the World University Games as of 2024. Its first edition was held in 2007. It was a regular feature between 2011 to 2021, with the exception of the 2019 edition. Events are played in a total of six disciplines – men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, and mixed team.
In its latest edition held in 2023, 214 athletes from 33 nations participated in the event. Except the mixed team event, all the other events are played in the single elimination knockout draw format. Each match is played in the best of three sets format. Winning 21 points secures the set for the player or pair. If the score reaches 20-20 then the first to take a lead of two points wins the set.
In the mixed team event, depending on the number of participants, teams are divided into four groups. In each group, the teams play each other in a round-robin format. Based on the number of wins and the points collected, the top two teams from each group progress to the quarterfinals. The teams that could not make it to the knockout stages faced each other in the classification draw.
As of 2024, South Korea is the most successful nation in badminton with 15 gold medals from their total tally of 21. The Chinese Taipei are the next best, having a count of 38 medals, with nine of them being gold.
