Zhang Ning (simplified Chinese: 张宁; traditional Chinese: 張寧; pinyin: Zhāng Níng; born 19 May 1975 in Jinzhou, Liaoning, China) is a female badminton player from the People's Republic of China. She won the Olympic gold medal twice for women's singles in both 2004 and 2008. She has played badminton on the world scene since the mid-1990s and has been particularly successful since 2002 while in her late twenties and early thirties, relatively late for singles at the highest level, and especially for top players in the Chinese system who are developed very early. She is the only player of either sex to win consecutive Olympic singles gold medals.

Zhang first represented China in Uber Cup (women's world team championship) competition in 1994 and last represented it in 2006. Though she was not always chosen to play in each of the biennial editions of this tournament, the span of her Uber Cup service is the longest of any Chinese player.

Although she had previously won a number of international open titles dating from the mid 1990s, Zhang's breakthrough as a dominant player on the world circuit came in the 2003 IBF World Championships, where she stormed into the final. There, 28-year old Zhang Ning defeated compatriot Gong Ruina easily 11-6, 11-3.

Xie Xingfang (simplified Chinese: 谢杏芳; traditional Chinese: 謝杏芳; pinyin: Xiè Xìngfāng; Yale Romanization: Je6 Hang6 Fong1; born January 8, 1981, in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China) is a female badminton player from the People's Republic of China who has twice won women's singles at the BWF World Championships.

Her first big title was in girl's doubles, with her provincial team mate Zhang Jiewen, at the World Junior Championships in 1998. She has also won a bronze medal at the World Junior Championships in mixed doubles with Cai Yun. Yet once she entered the Chinese national team, she switched to singles. 2004 was her "break-out" year as she won several top tier titles on the world circuit. Xie and her senior compatriot and rival Zhang Ning were the most dominant international women's singles players of the mid and late parts of the decade, though they were pressed by younger teammates such as Zhu Lin, Lu Lan, Jiang Yanjiao and Wang Yihan. Not an especially elegant looking stylist, Xie's strengths were her reach, quickness, consistency, and court sense. She was a member of China's world champion Uber Cup teams of 2004, 2006, and 2008.

Pi Hongyan (simplified Chinese: 皮红艳; traditional Chinese: 皮紅艷; pinyin: Pí Hóngyàn; born 25 January 1979 in Chongqing) is a female badminton player from France.

Pi Hongyan is one of a number of talented Chinese-born badminton players who have emigrated from China, in part, because of the intense competition to gain positions on its national team, and because of the elite status within the sport that such a player is likely to hold in other badminton playing countries. Her titles include women's singles at the U.S. (1999), German (2001, 2002), Bitburger (2001, 2002), Portugal (2001, 2003), Croatian (2004), French (2003, 2004, 2005), Dutch (2004), Swiss (2005), and Denmark (2005) Opens. At the biennial European Championships she was a silver medalist in 2004 and a bronze medalist in (2008, 2010). She was runner-up to China's Xie Xingfang at the prestigious All-England Championships in 2007. Pi has been at least a quarter-finalist in each of the last six consecutive BWF World Championships ( 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010,2011)with a bronze medal in 2009, as well as a quarter-finalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Mia Audina Tjiptawan (Chinese: 張海麗; pinyin: Zhang Haili); born 22 August 1979) is a former Chinese Indonesian badminton player who represented Indonesia and later the Netherlands in international competitions. A badminton prodigy, Audina first played Uber Cup (the women's world team championship) for Indonesia at fourteen, winning the decisive final match in the championship round against China in 1994. She helped Indonesia to retain the title in 1996, and was a member of the 1998 Indonesian team that relinquished the cup to China, before moving to the Netherlands with her Dutch-national husband.

As a Dutch resident she continued to compete, winning titles in both Europe and Asia before retiring from high-level competition in 2006. Top honors in badminton's three most prestigious events for individual players, the Olympics, the All-Englands, and the World Championships, eluded Audina, though she was twice an Olympic silver medalist in singles (1996, 2004) and was a bronze medalist at the World Championships in 2003. Her most significant victories included the open singles titles of the USA (1996), Singapore (1997), Japan (1997, 2004), Indonesia (1998), Korea (2003), the Netherlands (2001, 2002), Switzerland (2002), and Taiwan (2000, 2003). She won singles at the Southeast Asian Games in 1997 and both singles and women's doubles at the European Championships in 2004. A gritty competitor and, in her youth, exceptionally mobile and supple (she was rarely forced into hitting backhands), Audina was a crowd favorite throughout her career.

Maria Kristin Yulianti (born June 2, 1985 in Tuban) is a women's singles badminton player from Indonesia. She is one of the most successful female Indonesian badminton players, along with Susi Susanti and Mia Audina.

She played in some satellite competitions and won the Malaysian tournament.

She played in more satellite tournaments and won three: the Surabaya Satellite, the Jakarta Satellite, and the Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament.

She started to play tougher competitions but still played in satellite tournaments. She played in the Luxembourg Open and was the runner-up. Then she followed with the Bitburger Open and also achieved runner-up, beaten by Xu Huaiwen of Germany in the final, but she scored an upset by beating the seeded player Pi Hongyan of France in the quarterfinal. She played in the Singapore Satellite tournament and claimed the title. She became the most successful player on the national team.

This year, Yulianti was the dominant player on her team. She played in the BWF World Championships as the 15th seed, her highest rank in 2007. She was beaten in the third round by the world number one, Zhang Ning of China. Then, she reached her first quarterfinal of the Super Series tournament in Indonesia, by beating Lu Lan of China in a rubber set. She was stopped by Petya Nedelcheva of Bulgaria in straight sets. Then, she played a super series tournaments and lost to another high-ranked player. In December, she won the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand over fellow countrywoman Adriyanti Firdasari.