The women's doubles badminton tournament at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place from 24 July to 2 August at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza at Tokyo. There were 16 pairs (32 players) from 14 nations competing.

Indonesia's Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu defeated China's Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan 21–19, 21–15, to win the gold medal in women's doubles badminton at the 2020 Summer Olympics. It was Indonesia's first badminton gold medal from the women's doubles discipline, and the only gold won by the contingent in the 2020 Olympics. Indonesia also became the second country to have medaled in all five disciplines of Olympic badminton, after China completed the feat at the 2012 Olympics. At the age of 33 years and 11 months, Polii subsequently became the oldest player to win an Olympic gold medal in badminton. In the bronze-medal match, South Korea's Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong defeated compatriots Lee So-hee and Shin Seung-chan 21–10, 21–17. It was South Korea's second consecutive bronze medal at the event.

Japan's Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi were the defending Olympic champions from 2016, but Takahashi retired from international badminton in 2020, and Matsutomo chose not to participate in the event.

Background This was the 8th appearance of the event as a full medal event. Badminton was introduced as a demonstration sport in 1972 (without women's doubles), held again as an exhibition sport in 1988, and added to the full programme in 1992; the women's doubles tournament had been held since.

The reigning champions were Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi of Japan, who were not defending their title following Takahashi's retirement. Japan has two of the three top-ranked qualifiers, however, with Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota (#1) and Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara (#3). Matsumoto and Nagahara were the reigning world champions, defeating Fukushima and Hirota in the final. China, which had won 5 of the previous 7 editions of the women's doubles, had the #2-ranked pair Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan.

Qualification

The badminton qualification system provided for 16 women's doubles teams (32 players). Following revisions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the qualifying periods were 29 April 2019 to 15 March 2020 and 4 January to 13 June 2021, with the ranking list of 15 June 2021 controlling qualification.

Qualification was done entirely through the ranking list. Nations with at least two pairs in the top 8 were able to send a maximum of 2 pairs (4 players); all other nations were limited to a single pair. Pairs were taken from the ranking list in order, respecting those national limits, until 16 pairs were selected. However, each continent was guaranteed to have at least one pair with the lowest-ranking pairs displaced if necessary to make room for a continental guarantee.

Competition format The tournament started with a group phase round-robin. There were four groups of four teams each; the top two highest-ranked pairs from each group advanced to a knockout stage. The knockout stage was a three-round single-elimination tournament with a bronze medal match.

Matches were played best-of-three games. Each game was played to 21, except that a pair must win by 2 unless the score reached 30–29.

Seeds (quarter-finals) (silver medalists) (quarter-finals) (fourth place)

Schedule The tournament was held over a 10-day period, with 7 competition days and 3 open days.

PPreliminariesQFQuarter-finalsSFSemi-finalsMMedal matches Date 24 Jul 25 Jul 26 Jul 27 Jul 28 Jul 29 Jul 30 Jul 31 Jul 1 Aug 2 AugEvent M E M E M E M E M E M E M A M E A E A E Women's doubles P QF SF M

Group stage Group A

Date TimePair 1ScorePair 2Set 1Set 2Set 3 24 July 09:00 Greysia Polii Apriyani Rahayu 2–0 Chow Mei Kuan Lee Meng Yean 21–14 21–17 20:40 Yuki Fukushima Sayaka Hirota 2–0 Chloe Birch Lauren Smith 21–13 21–14 25 July 19:20 Yuki Fukushima Sayaka Hirota 2–1 Chow Mei Kuan Lee Meng Yean 17–21 21–15 21–8 26 July 18:00 Greysia Polii Apriyani Rahayu 2–0 Chloe Birch Lauren Smith 21–11 21–13 27 July 10:40 Yuki Fukushima Sayaka Hirota 1–2 Greysia Polii Apriyani Rahayu 22–24 21–13 8–21 Chow Mei Kuan Lee Meng Yean 2–0 Chloe Birch Lauren Smith 21–19 21–16

Group B

Date TimePair 1ScorePair 2Set 1Set 2Set 3 24 July 18:00 Mayu Matsumoto Wakana Nagahara 2–0 Doha Hany Hadia Hosny 21–7 21–3 18:40 Selena Piek Cheryl Seinen 2–1 Rachel Honderich Kristen Tsai 16–21 21–14 21–15 25 July 20:00 Mayu Matsumoto Wakana Nagahara 2–1 Rachel Honderich Kristen Tsai 14–21 21–19 21–18 26 July 19:20 Selena Piek Cheryl Seinen 2–0 Doha Hany Hadia Hosny 21–6 21–10 27 July 18:00 Mayu Matsumoto Wakana Nagahara 2–0 Selena Piek Cheryl Seinen 24–22 21–15 18:40 Rachel Honderich Kristen Tsai 2–0 Doha Hany Hadia Hosny 21–5 21–6

Group C

Date TimePair 1ScorePair 2Set 1Set 2Set 3 24 July 11:00 Du Yue Li Yinhui 2–0 Maiken Fruergaard Sara Thygesen 21–13 21–15 18:40 Lee So-hee Shin Seung-chan 2–0 Setyana Mapasa Gronya Somerville 21–9 21–6 25 July 13:20 Lee So-hee Shin Seung-chan 1–2 Maiken Fruergaard Sara Thygesen 21–15 19–21 20–22 26 July 20:00 Du Yue Li Yinhui 2–0 Setyana Mapasa Gronya Somerville 21–9 21–12 27 July 11:20 Maiken Fruergaard Sara Thygesen 1–2 Setyana Mapasa Gronya Somerville 19–21 21–13 12–21 20:00 Lee So-hee Shin Seung-chan 2–0 Du Yue Li Yinhui 21–19 21–12

Group D

Date TimePair 1ScorePair 2Set 1Set 2Set 3 24 July 11:40 Chen Qingchen Jia Yifan 2–0 Jongkolphan Kititharakul Rawinda Prajongjai 21–6 21–10 Kim So-yeong Kong Hee-yong 2–1 Gabriela Stoeva Stefani Stoeva 21–23 21–12 23–21 25 July 10:40 Kim So-yeong Kong Hee-yong 2–0 Jongkolphan Kititharakul Rawinda Prajongjai 21–19 24–22 26 July 13:20 Chen Qingchen Jia Yifan 2–0 Gabriela Stoeva Stefani Stoeva 21–18 21–15 27 July 12:00 Chen Qingchen Jia Yifan 2–1 Kim So-yeong Kong Hee-yong 19–21 21–16 21–14 19:20 Gabriela Stoeva Stefani Stoeva 2–1 Jongkolphan Kititharakul Rawinda Prajongjai 21–11 16–21 21–17

Finals The quarter-finals were held on 29 July 2021, the semi-finals on 31 July, and the medal matches on 2 August 2021.

References

External links Group play