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Brian Yang started playing badminton at the age of eight. Ever since he began, Yang has been making giant strides. In fact, he is one of the youngest badminton players ever to make the cut to the Olympics.
An Se-young of South Korea was born on February 5, 2002, while Yang was born on November 25, 2001. While Se-young will be the youngest participant in the women’s, Yang is the youngest in the men’s singles category at the Tokyo Olympics.
Nineteen-year-old Yang will represent Canada at the Tokyo Olympics in the men’s singles. A couple of years ago, Brian was not expecting to make the cut for the Tokyo Games. In fact, he was planning to qualify for the 2024 Olympics.
However, a series of outstanding performances in the last two years not only helped him improve his world rankings to 44 but also made him eligible to qualify.
Brian Yang reached the semis at the SaarLorLux Open earlier this year
In the shortened 2020 season, Yang earned a career-best finish in a BWF World Tour Super 100 tournament, reaching the semi-finals of the SaarLorLux Open. Third seed Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands stopped Yang's impressive run with a 21-18, 21-17 win in the semis.
In 2021, Yang won singles gold at the Pan American Championships in Guatemala, beating his Canadian counterpart Jason Ho-Shue in the final. Yang has won seven BWF International Challenge and Series titles so far in ten attempts in the finals.
The five-foot 11-inch tall shuttler became the youngest ever junior Canadian national champion at the age of 14 in 2016. Once he won that Under-19 national crown, he never looked back. Yang followed that up by becoming the youngest ever Under-23 national champion in 2017 at age 15. In 2019, he became the youngest to ever win the senior national singles title.
Yang has competed at four World Junior Championships, advancing to the Round of 32 thrice in singles (2017, 2018, 2019) and twice in mixed doubles (2016, 2018). Yang represented Canada at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games, winning gold as part of Team Alpha in the mixed team event. In 2018, he competed in his first major events as a senior, the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia and the Pan American Championships.
At the Tokyo Olympics, he was drawn in Group P with second seed Chou Tien Chen and Sweden’s Felix Burestedt, world No. 57. He will have to get out of his skin to top the group and qualify for the knock-outs.
Excerpts from Sportskeeda's exclusive interview with Yang
Q: This is your first Olympics. How excited are you for the biggest challenge of your life?
A: I’m about as excited as you can get. The Olympics is arguably the biggest stage in the world for sport as a whole. So, being able to represent Canada is just beyond amazing. It’s always been my dream to play in the Olympics, and now that I’ve made it, it’s just mind-blowing.
Q: You are just 19. Did you expect to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics at such a young age?
A: I was planning to try for the 2024 Olympics as my first Games, but I made a late decision in early 2019 to try for Tokyo. I knew that it was possible for me to qualify, but it would be really difficult as I had to balance badminton and school, as well as the junior and senior tournaments. So I was mainly just trying to experiment and see if I had what it took to make it to the Olympics. I ended up qualifying, which was really awesome, especially with the journey I went through to qualify.
Q: You are clubbed in Group P along with second seed Chou Tien Chen and Felix Burestedt. How do you rate your chances in the Tokyo Games?
A: Chou Tien Chen is obviously one of the best players in the world. Against him, I’m just trying to learn as much as I can and do my best. As for Felix, he’s also a very solid player. I have a chance of beating him, but I need to be on the top of my game, for sure.
Q: You are world No. 44 now. How would you like to see yourself in another two years’ time in the world rankings?
A: I just want to slowly go up the rankings one by one, but, I guess in two years, I would like to be around the top 25 or top 20 in the world.
Q: Which is your best performance so far in international badminton and what is your ultimate target?
A: I think my best performance so far was at the 2021 Pan Am Championships in Guatemala. I won the tournament and clinched my first Pan Am Championship title, and it also raised my ranking to be in a position to qualify for Tokyo. I played really well throughout the whole tournament, and I’m really proud of my performance. My ultimate goal is to do well for the country in major international tournaments.
Q: Who is your role model?
A: I really look up to the Malaysian legend Lee Chong Wei. I really admire his back story, his playing style, his athleticism and skill, and his personality as well. Ever since I was young, I looked up to him the most.
