When Ge Fei (at the front) and Gu Jun (at the back) won the 1995 Sudirman Cup with the Chinese team, even the biggest supporters could not have imagined how great the duo would become. After their loss at the 1996 Japan Open, Ge / Gu started the most dominant four-year run in the history of the sport. They only lost two matches (a group-stage match in the 1997 World Grand Prix Finals where they still went on to win the title, and the final of 2000 Japan Open), and captured two World Championship titles (1997, 1999), four All-England Open titles (1996, 1997, 1998, 2000), two Uber Cups (1998, 2000), and three Sudirman Cups (1995, 1997, 1999). They won the women’s doubles title at Atlanta 1996, bringing China its first Olympic gold medal in badminton. The last match of the epic run was the final at Sydney 2000, which they won comfortably in just 35 minutes, becoming the first badminton players to win two Olympic gold medals. This was also the last international match of the legendary partnership. They were named two of the 50 greatest athletes in the history of the People’s Republic of China (1999) and inducted into the BWF Hall of Fame in 2008.
People's Republic of China