Making the most with what you have: Kelly Aston and Badminton Wales’ great ambitions
Badminton is a sport that has created one of the most fascinating conundrums in the sporting world.
Its rapid speed during play makes it a truly hypnotizing watch that’s hard to take your eyes off. Even if you take the sport out of a professional context, its simple rules and easy setup make it the perfect pastime activity that can be enjoyed by all ages.
This simplicity has seen badminton spread in popularity in Asian countries such as China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Japan, just to name a few.
However, if it’s so simple to understand and play, why has the sport struggled to break through to the mainstream media beyond South and Southeast Asia?
Former Welsh international and Commonwealth Games gold medalist, and current CEO of Badminton Wales, Kelly Aston (née Morgan), MBE, had the exact same question.
On the sidelines of the 73rd edition of the Welsh International Open, one of the oldest badminton tournaments in the world, Kelly spoke with The Sports Gazette about her aspirations for Badminton Wales and how she plans to grow it.
‘The Queen of Welsh Badminton’
Kelly started playing badminton at the young age of nine. Initially just accompanying her brother, after some successful trials, she began representing Wales from that young age.
Her career is beyond illustrious, as she has participated in three Olympic Games, reached a rank of number five in the world, beaten former world No. 1 Ye Zhaoying on two separate occasions, and won a gold medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.
Despite these global achievements, she has maintained incredibly close ties with her roots in Wales. During her career, she regularly came back to her home nation to participate in the Welsh Nationals and the Welsh International Open.
She has won the Welsh Nationals on 13 different occasions and the International Open once, in 1996, being the last Welsh winner in the women’s singles category.
A new responsibility
Kelly became the CEO of Badminton Wales in 2017 and, early on in her tenure, faced the struggles of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later, Kelly explained that Badminton Wales’ strategy was to “bring people back.”
She added: “We’re really trying to get that community feeling, get more people engaged with the sport.
“We want to grow badminton, want to make it a fantastic sport within Wales, we want more people playing, we want more competitions, we want more clubs, we want more opportunities, (and) as a small team, we can’t do everything, so we need that community.”
This post-pandemic strategy has seen positive results, as membership numbers for Badminton Wales have increased roughly 16% between March 2023 and 2024.
Furthermore, in terms of turnover, compared to their numbers during the peak of the pandemic in 2021, the organization has improved upon that financial aspect by roughly 53% as of 2024, based on Badminton Wales’ annual reports.
Now that stability has been somewhat restored, Kelly wants to see her nation produce talents that can match, if not surpass, her incredible achievements. For this, she has planned a necessary restructure that can help more Welsh players reach their full potential.
Bringing the Change
Returning to the earlier question: why are Asian nations far more dominant on the global stage in badminton?
Kelly understands badminton is an “easy” sport in terms of learning and accessibility. She said, “You can just put a net up and anybody can play. People who are over 80 can enjoy badminton as it’s a simple sport to begin with. But I think people don’t quite see, when you see it at the top level, how fast it is.”
Looking towards Asia, Kelly says that “it’s such a big sport” where “they’ve got parks which are full of badminton courts.” With such a high volume of participation, Kelly explained the level of competition within Asian countries, stating, “If you want to be the best in one of the Asian countries, you’ll (have) to be top 10 in the world.”
In contrast, Wales is a “smaller country,” as Kelly put it, and so it is important to build a pathway that would involve the community, as badminton is a “social sport.”
She stated, “If you’ve got a bigger base, you’ve got more people playing the sport. (If we create that pathway) we can maybe get one or two (players) coming through that would move to the next level (and so on).”
Badminton Wales and Kelly aim to build this pathway through a tournament structure, as currently there are “four junior events and four graded events,” and moving up, there is the national championship, which helps make the national squads.
This “rebuild” of the pathway will then allow the top players to enroll in the Team GB programmes, which will give them the opportunity to potentially reach an Olympic level.
But to see Welsh players reach this stage, Kelly once again emphasized the importance of “building a big base to start with.”
Passing the torch
At this particular edition of the Welsh International Open, Kelly was looking forward to watching the many Welsh participants in the competition. In particular, she mentioned Jack Wilson, who has become the first Welsh para-athlete to compete in an able-bodied international badminton event.
While there hasn’t been a Welsh champion at the Open since 2006, Kelly is quite hopeful to see a Welsh winner soon, seeing the exposure some of the junior Welsh players received at the tournament, stating, “They’ll see the senior players here, (which will) make them want to do more to really reach for those heights.”
Badminton Wales and Kelly Aston are truly the prime example of making the most with what you have. Kelly summed up all her views for the future of Welsh badminton and seems very optimistic about it, concluding with pride-
“As I said before, we’re a small team and we are never going to be a big team. We need people on board with us to deliver. I would like to see this event (Welsh International Open) growing, Welsh winners, (high) performance players traveling the world, increasing all of our clubs, having leagues, having Welsh squads, and returning to the international circuit. It will take some time and a happy team to get there, but (we have) big ambitions and the stepping stones to get there.”
