Han Aiping was a Chinesebadminton player in the 1980s who ranks among the greats of the woman's game. Noted for her superb overhead strokes, she and her teammate, rival, and sometimes doubles partner Li Lingwei dominated international singles play for most of the decade, each winning the IBF World Championships twice, and led Chinese teams to victory in Uber Cup competitions.
Early years
At the age of 10, Han Aiping began to receive badminton training in the Wuhan Amateur Sports School. In 1977 she finished second in the Chinese national championships and joined the National Chinese team at the age of 16 the following year. In 1979 Han Aiping had to participate at the Asian Badminton Confederation championships followed by the World Badminton Federation Championships at the age of 17 when she already won the women's singles title.
Career
Han Aiping born in 1962 joined the Chinese National team at the age of 16 and she won the badminton women's singles World Championship at the age of 17. However she had to take a break from badminton for two years, as she was on her way to the peak of her career, was diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism. She was forced to return to the Hubei Provincial Team to recuperate. After she recovered from the illnes in September 1982 and trained for less than 4 months, she made a strong comeback on the badminton courts becoming the runner-up at the Chinese National Badminton Championships in women's singles competition losing to her illustrious teammate Li Lingwei. Internationally in 1983 she won the Japan Open title, was the runner-up at the World Championships and she won both the women's singles and women's doubles titles at the Badminton World Cup. She is one of the most successful players at the World Championships, with three gold medals, two of them in singles and another in women's doubles, plus a silver medal in both singles and doubles. At seventeen Han also won the short-lived World Badminton Federation's version of the World Championships in 1979, before China became a member of the International Badminton Federation. She was also the Silver medallist in the 1988 Olympics when Badminton was a exhibition sport in the Olympics. She lost the final to Hwang Hye-young with 11–1, 8–11, 6–11 scoreline. By 1989 she had won 14 singles Open international titles and 3 doubles Open international titles. She won the All England Open singles and doubles title in 1985. She won the Grand Prix Finals twice in singles in 1984 & 1988. She won five Badminton World Cup titles, two in singles and three in doubles. She won the singles title and was a member of the winning Chinese Women's team at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul, South Korea. She also was one of the main players in China's dominance at the Uber Cup competitions successively in 1984, 1986, and 1988.
Rivalry with Li Lingwei
Han Aiping and her teammate Li Lingwei repeatedly fought for the women's singles title at the World Championships, the World Cup and the World Badminton Grand Prix Finals, and at other big events. In the then biennial World Championships, the two met in the 1983 and 1987 finals, with Li winning in '83 and Han winning in '87. In the World Cup women's singles event Han Aiping won two titles and was runner-up four times in six 6 consecutive appearances in the finals. Aside from this rivalry Han and Li partnered in doubles to win three World Cup crowns and to reach two finals at the World Championships, winning the 1985 title together. Han and Li also contested the 1986 Asian Games women's singles final against each other and together winning the women's team title for China at the badminton competition of the same Asian Games. At the World Badminton Grand Prix Finals she reached the final seven consecutive years, losing the first attempt in 1983 against Li Lingwei and there after three more years from 1985 till 1987. Han Aiping winning the title in 1984 against Indonesian Ivana Lie. Han Aiping reached two more women's singles finals at the World Badminton Grand Prix Finals, winning against Korean Lee Young-suk in 1988 and losing against compatriot Tang Jiuhong in 1989.
After retiring
In 1989, Han Apining retired from the National Chinese badminton team. In March of 1990 she and her husband Guo Ming went to Australia to study. In April she was invited to give lectures in Japan's Olympic Intensification Program and then taught at the Suntory Badminton Club in Japan. In June 1994 she was reunited with her husband in Australia and cooperated with the local badminton club to train the team members to participate in the competition on behalf of the club. At the end of November 2002 she returned to China to serve as the head coach and head of the teaching and research team of the Hubei Badminton Women's Team. Dongfanghong Primary School, Qiaokou District, Wuhan City, established a badminton school named after her and officially unveiled this in September 2005. In 2013, she was elected at the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Han officially retired in 1990 and was inducted into the Badminton Hall of Fame in 1998. She died on 16 October 2019 due to lung cancer at the age of 57.
Family
Han Aiping and her husband Guo Ming have two daughters. They traveled to Japan and Australia with the two kids before returning to Wuhan, Hubei, to settle in 2002. Later, in order to better re-engage their daughters in the English language they sent them to Singapore. The elder daughter, Guo Yushan, conducted badminton training at a local club, while the second daughter, Han Yalu, went into tennis training.
