The badminton tournament at the 2012 Summer Olympics was held at [Wembley Arena] in London, a venue originally constructed for swimming events at the 1934 British Empire Games. It had been used for multiple events the last time London hosted the Olympic Games, in [1948], and was also the home of [rhythmic gymnastics in 2012]). Players and pairs qualified for the Games based on rankings published by the Badminton World Federation on May 3, and each continent was guaranteed at least one entrant in each event regardless of ranking. The London Games saw the introduction of a group stage of play to the badminton events, which had been introduced at the 2010 Youth Summer Olympics and replaced the instant elimination format used in previous editions.

[Zhao Yunlei] of China was perhaps the biggest star of the tournament as the only competitor to win two medals, gold in both the women's and mixed doubles. China pulled off the impressive feat of sweeping the gold medals in the five categories (men's and women's singles and men's, women's and mixed doubles) and, with an additional two silver medals and one bronze, matched their 2008 total of eight medals, albeit with two extra gold. Despite having been the overall medal winner in the Olympic badminton tournament since 2000, this feat was nonetheless outstanding in that the Chinese kept every other country to one medal or less, except for Denmark, who won silver in men's doubles and bronze in the mixed version. This achievement, however, was overshadowed by a match-fixing scandal in the women's doubles event that saw eight players, four from South Korea, two from China, and two from Indonesia, disqualified from competition for "not using one's best efforts to win a match" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport". The media attention given to this debacle painted a negative portrait of a sport that, in many non-Asian countries, did not usually garner that much publicity. There was also some criticism that China's dominance at the Olympics suggested that the sport was not competitive enough to be part of the program (as had been determined for baseball/softball after the 2004 Games). Such concerns were allayed by the results of the 2016 Games, which saw the medals distributed more widely.

Two-time Olympic badminton women'€™s singles champion [Zhang Ning] of China had retired after her victory at the 2008 Games, leaving a more open field for the 2012 edition. Ranked number one in the world since October 2009 was her student, [Wang Yihan], winner of numerous accolades including a victory at the most recent World Championship. With [Wang Xin] and [Li Xuerui] ranked second and third respectively, China was the dominant force going into the Olympics and a favorite to capture all three podium spots.

The Chinese competitors did not disappoint, winning every match they played in the group stage in two rounds. They were only slightly less dominant in the round of 16 and the quarterfinals '€“ it took three rounds for Wang Yihan to defeat [Bae Yeon-Ju] of Korea in the round of 16, while [Inthanon Ratchanok] of Thailand was toppled by Wang Xin in three during the quarterfinals '€“ but they remained favorites for all three medals going into the semi-finals, with India'€™s [Saina Nehwal] rounding out the four. Wang Yihan easily defeated Nehwal 21-13, 21-13 to earn her spot in the final, while a much more-hotly contested match between Li and Wang Xin ended in a 21-20, 21-18 victory for Li. The final was somewhat surprising, with Li defeating the number one-ranked Wang Yihan 21-15, 21-23, 21-17, but most attention centered around the bronze medal-match, where Nehwal became the first competitor from India to win an Olympic badminton medal amid somewhat controversial circumstances. Wang Xin had won the first round of the match 21-18 and had already scored her first point in the second when a knee injury forced her to retire and cede victory to Nehwal. While Wang Xin'€™s teammates, and many observers, felt that she would have won the match had it continued to its natural end, Nehwal was confident that she had been wearing down her opponent and that she would have captured bronze regardless.

[Wang Xiaoli] and [Yu Yang] of China were the number one ranked badminton women'€™s doubles team going into the 2012 Olympics and the favorites to win gold. Yu was one of the defending Olympic champions and a two-time reigning World Champion; in 2008 and 2010 her partner had been [Du Jing] but, for the 2011 World Championships, she had joined with Wang, a runner-up from the 2010 edition. China also had the number two seed of [Tian Qing] and [Zhao Yunlei], who had been the runners-up in 2011. South Korea'€™s [Ha Jeong-Eun] and [Kim Min-Jeong] and Japan'€™s [Mizuki Fujii] and [Reika Kakiiwa], who ranked third and fourth in the world respectively, were also top prospects to challenge for the podium.

In perhaps the most publicized controversy of the 2012 Games, Wang and Yu were booed off the court after what appeared to be an intentional loss to [Jeong Gyeong-Eun] and [Kim Ha-Na] of South Korea during the group stage. Losing the match ensured that Wang and Yu would avoid meeting their compatriots Tian and Zhao until the final and guaranteed China the top two podium spots should each team win their quarter and semi-finals. In the ranking-deciding match of another pool, both Ha and Kim and their Indonesian opponents [Greysia Polii] and [Meiliana Jauhari] also seemed to be intentionally losing points in an effort to fix the match. Following a review by the Badminton World Federation, all eight players were disqualified from the Games for "not using one's best efforts to win a match" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport" and were replaced in the final brackets by the third and fourth-place finishers of their pools. Some felt that this decision was overly harsh, considering that the competitors'€™ strategy had been a long-term one, seeking to place themselves in the best position to win the tournament at the cost of a single match. Others argued that the players were punished for a faulty rule system that incentivized such behavior and questioned the decision to allow teams that had not yet won a single match to compete for a medal. Most, however, agreed that, above all, the match-fixing went against the competitive spirit of sport and had sullied badminton'€™s reputation on the international scene. With further punishment left to the national governing bodies of the sport, the South Koreans were banned from all national and international competition for two years (later reduced to six months) while their coaches received a lifetime ban (later reduced to two years). Polii and Jauhari received four month bans while Yu Yang retired mere hours after being disqualified.

With two of the best teams out of contention, Tian and Zhao and Fuijii and Kakiiwa easily survived to the finals, where the Chinese squad emerged victorious 21-10, 25-23. The bronze medal match was fought between the Russian duo of [Valeriya Sorokina] and [Nina Vislova] and the Canadians [Alex Bruce] and [Michele Li], who had been the third and fourth-place finishers respectively in the pool originally won by Jeong and Kim. Having lost to the Russians in the group stage 8-21, 10-21, Bruce and Li made a surprising comeback by defeating the Australian duo of [Leanne Choo] and [Renuga Veeran] 21-9, 18-21, 21-18 and putting up a valiant effort against the Japanese team in a 12-21, 21-19, 13-21 loss. They were only able to improve their performance against the Russians marginally in the bronze medal match, however, losing 9-21, 10-21.