PARIS, France — Beiwen Zhang is one step closer to earning Team USA its first Olympic medal in badminton.
Zhang defeated Vietnam’s Nguyen Thuy Linh in a women’s singles match on Wednesday to win the competition’s group stage. Zhang beat Australia’s Tiffany Ho in her first group-stage match.
Wednesday’s match proved to be a nail-biter. Zhang edged Linh 22-20 in games one and two to take the match 2-0.
Zhang is the 13th-ranked women’s badminton singles player in the world and entered the 2024 Paris Olympics as the ninth seed.
She reached the round of 16 in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but suffered an Achilles injury in a match against China’s He Bingjiao while leading 1-0. She bounced back from the injury by winning gold in the 2023 Pan American Games and 2024 Pan Am Championships.
Zhang is the only U.S. singles badminton player to ever reach the round of 16 in the Olympics. U.S. men’s singles players have only managed to reach the round of 32 three times. Men’s doubles teams reached the round of 16 for Team USA in 1992 and 2008. The United States has qualified athletes for every Summer Olympics since the sport was added in 1992.
Zhang will face either Spain’s Carolina Marín or Ireland’s Rachael Darragh on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. The match streams on Peacock.
