Parabadminton

Para-Badminton is a Paralympic racquet sport for disabled players divided into 6 classification groups (wheelchair players WH1 and WH2 and standing groups SL3, SL4, SU5, SH6). Czech players compete in the open championships of the Czech Republic and Poland and other open tournaments. The best Czech players have also played world tournaments in Spain, France, Denmark, Bahrain and Japan. In the Czech Republic parabadminton is trained mainly in Brno, Ostrava, Plzeň, Jánské Lázně, Český Krumlov and Prague. However, we also believe in the interest of coaches in other clubs, where they will attend to you if you contact them.

Classification groups

Para-Badminton is divided into 6 groups according to disability. WH1 wheelchair players with major trunk disabilities, WH2 wheelchair players with minor trunk disabilities, SL3 standing group with lower limb disabilities above the knee, SL4 standing group with lower limb disabilities below the knee, SU5 standing group with upper limb disabilities and SH6 standing group of small stature players.

Rules

Types of tournaments

Para badminton tournaments are generally divided into 4 groups: 1) Paralympics and World Championships, 2) tournaments from the Badminton World Federation (BWF) calendar, so-called world circuit, which has 3 levels, 3) continental tournaments (e.g. European Championships - every 2 years) and 4) open international tournaments outside the BWF calendar (e.g. Czech Para Badminton Open).

Recruitment

We recruit new people interested in parabadminton (all classification groups) all year round. We will be happy to welcome you to the established parabadminton training sessions at these clubs or recommend the nearest club.

Badminton Sharks Brno, coach Tomáš Voves +420 725 891 077, info@badmintonsharks.cz
Badmintonová Akademie Plzeň, contact person Tomáš Knopp +420 777 586 357, zpcbadminton@centrum.cz
B.O.Chance Ostrava Sportclub, contact person Radomír Krupa +420 778 038 022, B.O.Chance@centrum.cz
Sportovní klub Badminton Český Krumlov, coach Radek Votava +420 724 320 839, radek.votava@mybox.cz
Obchodní akademie Olgy Halové Janské Lázně, contact person, coach Petr Holub +420 605 858 687, holub@oajl.cz
Sportovní klub vozíčkářů Praha, contact person, coach Karolína Hrbáčková +420 777 256 053, hrbackova@skvpraha.org

History

The history of parabadminton in the Czech Republic dates back to 2007. The very first pioneer was Halka Bitmanová from Prague, who led open training sessions at the Janské Lázně secondary school until 2013. In 2014, these activities were continued by Pavla Grycová with coach Tomas Voves from Brno. In 2017, the training group visited the national centre in Japan and coaches Tomáš Voves and Hynek Šabacký also attended a parabadminton training in Ireland organised by Badminton Europe before the upcoming World Championships in Korea. Until 2019, a small group of juniors trained regularly, then adults interested in badminton started to join them. Among the most successful were Lukáš Šembera, Lukáš Kyncl and Jan Matoušek. In 2020, there were efforts to take up para-badminton also in Ostrava and Český Krumlov. Parabadminton was presented at a number of exhibitions, which involved players from Brno, but also from Český Krumlov and Ostrava. The Brno Sharks club also organises annual open camps for friendly clubs from Poland and Austria, as well as the Czech Para Badminton Open Championship, which was held for the first time in 2017 and, apart from skipping the 2020 covid, is held every year. The first ever winner of the Czech Open was para badminton player Zdeněk Krupička. In 2022, Lukáš Kyncl made history by becoming the first Czech to compete at the World Championships. And another success did not wait long. Another Badminton Sharks representative Kamil Šnajdar won a bronze medal at the 2023 European Championships in the mixed doubles.

The greatest achievements of Czech parabadminton

Lukáš Šembera's 13th place at the 2018 European Championships in France,
Lukáš Šembera's first ever BWF doubles match against Polish teammate Jakub Sikorski at the 2019 Danish Para Badminton International,
Jan Matoušek's first ever BWF singles match at the Spanish Para Badminton International 2021,
Lukas Kyncl's 5th place in the mixed doubles with doubles player Anna Wolny at the Bahrain Para Badminton International 2022,
Lukáš Kyncl's 17th place in singles at the 2022 World Championships in Japan,
3rd place of Kamil Šnajdar at the European Championships 2023 in Holland.