Lee Yong Dae
Lee Yong-dae (Hangul: 이용대; Hanja: 李龍大; Korean pronunciation: [i.joŋ.dɛ̝]; born September 11, 1988) is a former professional badminton player from South Korea who had been successful in both men's and mixed doubles. He has ranked world number 1 with 4 different partners, Chung Jae Sung, Ko Sung Hyun and Yoo Yeon Seong in Men's Doubles, and Lee Hyo Jung in Mixed Doubles. He has a total of 43 Superseries titles, 37 from the men's doubles discipline, most of any doubles player in one discipline, and 6 from mixed. He ranked world number 1 in men's doubles for 104 consecutive weeks with his last partner, Yoo Yeon Seong.
After winning the 2016 Korean Superseries with Yoo, Lee announced his retirement from professional badminton.
Lee started playing badminton at his local elementary school at the age of 8, taking up the sport to lose weight. His youth club is Samsung Electromechanics. He joined the national badminton team of South Korea in 2003, at the age of 15 years.
Lee participated in the OCBC/Yonex US Open, where he played in both the Men's Doubles and Singles category. For both events, he was ousted in the second round.
Lee started off 2004 with the French Open International, where he played the men's singles, men's doubles (with Jung Jung Yong) and mixed doubles (with Kang Hae Won) category. In the Mixed Doubles event, the pair managed to reach the semi-finals, before losing to the Russians. He also participated in several tournaments without much results. In the Vietnam Satellite, he reached the quarter-finals in the Mixed Doubles category, partnering Oh Seul Ki.
Still struggling to find the right partner, he played several tournaments without getting any big results. However, he did reach the finals of the Cheers Asian Satellite in the mixed doubles and the men's doubles category. With Ha Jung-eun as his partner, he won Asian Junior Badminton Championships.
In July, Lee captured three gold medals at the Asian Junior Championships in Cheras, Malaysia where he played a pivotal role to secure the boys doubles and mixed doubles victories for South Korea and frustrate Malaysia in the mixed team final.
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