Margaret Beck


Margaret Beck is a retired badminton player from England who ranked among the world's best during most of the 1970s.

Playing career

An exceptional junior talent, she represented England and won women's singles gold medal at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, while still in her teens.
In 1973, Ms. Beck won the women's singles at the All-England Championships, which, aside from the international team championships, was then the world's most prestigious tournament.
She shared the All-England women's doubles title with Gillian Gilks in 1974. She won singles at the World Invitation Tournament, a forerunner of the BWF World Championships, that was held in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1974. In 1974 she represented England and won a gold and silver medals in the doubles and singles, at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Her other international singles titles included the European Badminton Championships, and the Canadian, Irish, Portuguese, Scottish, and South African Opens. She also won five English National singles titles, and a dozen or more international doubles titles.
Noted for her rigorous fitness regimen, she developed a problem with her knee which was seriously aggravated during the first World Badminton Championships in 1977. The singles and doubles bronze medals that she earned there would be her last. Despite surgeries and attempted rehabilitation she never played serious competitive badminton again.