Viktor Axelsen is deservingly being touted as the overwhelming favourite for the men’s singles title at the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2023.
Playing in Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark, the two-time world champion can conquer one of the few mountains he is yet to in his impressive career – win a world crown on home soil.
However, although Denmark hosted the event four previous times, only three of their 17 World Championships gold medallists have triumphed in their proverbial own backyard.
These are the special trio.
Steen Fladberg/Jesper Helledie
Men’s doubles, 1983
Not only were Fladberg and Helledie Denmark’s maiden world champions on home soil, they also have a place in history as the first men’s pair from their country to win gold. It was 20 years before the Danes added another in the discipline, in 2003, through Lars Paaske/Jonas Rasmussen. Fladberg/Helledie’s golden moment in 1983 came against Englishmen Mike Tredgett/Martin Dew, who they defeated 15–10 15–10.
Watch the final:
Camilla Martin
Women’s singles, 1999
After losing to China’s Han Jingna in the 1997 third round in Glasgow, Scotland, Martin reportedly briefly contemplated retirement. It was Denmark’s gain that she didn’t as two years later she would become only the second woman from her country to be a singles world champion (after Lene Koppen at the inaugural edition in 1977).
Martin’s victory has its own page in badminton annals.
Just a week earlier, she had lost to her final opponent Dai Yun in the Sudirman Cup title match. In the rubber at the Brondby Arena on 23 May (Martin won the opener 11-6 and lost the second game by the same score), the local star was feeling the heat after allowing her Chinese rival to draw level after leading 10-3.
Her next move would go down as one of the most defining in World Championships history. Martin, then 25, lifted a finger to the umpire to signal her decision to refuse the deuce. The tactic unsettled Dai as Martin wrested the serve and sealed the match 11-10 with a trademark drop-shot.
Martin later said: “I’m sure she saw my one finger (gesture). She looked in disbelief when I thanked her for the match. I played one of my finest matches ever. When I was leading 10-3, I remembered she came from behind and beat me a few days ago. That’s why I lost control.”
No Dane has taken the women’s singles crown at the World Championships since.