Richard Vaughan (badminton)

Richard Vaughan

Personal information
Nationality	British (Welsh)
Born	(1978-04-16) 16 April 1978 Caerphilly, Wales
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	82 kg (181 lb; 12.9 st)
Sport
Sport	Badminton
Handedness	Right
Men's singles
Highest ranking	7 (2002)
BWF profile
Medal record Men's badminton Representing Wales Commonwealth Games 2002 Manchester Men's singles European Championships 2000 Glasgow Men's singles European Junior Championships 1997 Nymburk Boys' singles

Richard Vaughan (born 16 April 1978) is a former international badminton player from Wales who is a two-time Olympian, won bronze medals at Commonwealth Games and European Championships and is a twelve-times champion of Wales. From 2015 to 2021 he was the CEO for Squash Australia, and since 2023 the Vice-President and then Chief Operating Officer for the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

Biography

Vaughan from Llanbradach, Caerphilly, represented the Welsh team at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he competed in the singles and team events.

He won a bronze medal at the 2000 European Badminton Championships, losing to Peter Gade of Denmark in the semi-final. In 2000 he made his Olympic debut at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. During the men's singles he beat world No5 Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand in the first round and Swedish No1 Rasmus Wengberg in the 2nd round, before losing to World No1 and World Champion Sun Jun of China, 13–15 13–15. He beat the World No1 Roslin Hashim of Malaysia at the 2001 Danish Open.

Vaughan represented the Welsh team again at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, winninga bronze medal. He beat world No3 Ronald Susilo of Singapore and Abhinn Shyam Gupta of India on the way to the semi-final, where he lost to Lee Tsuen Seng of Malaysia. That same year he reached his highest world ranking of number 7. In 2004 Vaughan beat the World Champion Xia Xuanze of China at the All England Super Series and attended his second Olympic Games at the 2004 Summer Olympics despite contracting a virus similar to glandular fever, which seriously impaired his preparation for the Athens Olympics. In men's singles, he defeated Marco Vasconcelos of Portugal in the first round. In the round of 16, Vaughan was defeated by Shon Seung-Mo of Korea, the eventual silver medalist.

Vaughan went to his third Commonwealth Games in 2006 and earned 86 Welsh international caps. He was the xseven-time singles champion of Wales at the Welsh National Badminton Championships.

Towards the end of his paying career in 2005 he established the Richard Vaughan Badminton Academy, based in the United Kingdom, helping establish many British and European players. In 2008, Vaughan was a member of Team Darfur, a sporting pressure group in the lead up to the 2008 Olympic Games. He worked as a Director in IT sector before becoming the Chief Executive (CEO) of Badminton Ireland between 2011 and 2015. In 2014 Vaughan joined the board of Badminton Europe and chaired the High-Performance Commission, which has oversaw the development of a European Training Centre in Denmark.

From 2015 to 2020 Vaughan was the CEO of Squash Australia, guiding Australia at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast. In 2019, Vaughan established the 'Friends of Squash' Parliament competition with the current Sports Minister Anika Wells and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. and in late 2020 joined the board at Equestrian Australia as a Non-Executive Director, Chairing the Finance Committee.

Achievements

Commonwealth Games

Men's singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2002	Bolton Arena, Manchester, England	Lee Tsuen Seng		Bronze

European Championships

Men's singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2000	Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, Scotland	Peter Gade	3–15, 4–15	Bronze

European Junior Championships

Boys' singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
1997	Nymburk, Czech Republic	Dicky Palyama	15–11, 11–15, 15–18	Silver

World Grand Prix

The World Badminton Grand Prix sanctioned by International Badminton Federation (IBF) since 1983.

Men's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2000	Polish Open	Vladislav Druzchenko	12–15, 12–15	Runner-up
1999	Polish Open	Rio Suryana	9–15, 15–6, 12–15	Runner-up

Best Grand Prix results

• Last 16 All England 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007
• 1/4 Final Danish Grand Prix 2001
• 1/4 Final Swiss Grand Prix 2002
• 1/4 Final German Grand Prix 2002
• Semi Final Dutch Grand Prix 2000
• Semi Final US Grand Prix 2007
• Final Polish Grand Prix 2000
• Final Polish Grand Prix 2001

BWF International Challenge/Series

Men's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2006	Canadian International			Runner-up
2006	Waikato International	John Moody	21–11, 16–21, 20–22	Runner-up
2006	Victorian International	Nikhil Kanetkar	22–20, 21–13	Winner
2006	Estonian International			Runner-up
2006	Mauritius International	Klaus Raffeiner	21–11, 21–18	Winner
2006	Kenya International	Edwin Ekiring	21–16, 21–17	Winner
2006	South Africa International			Winner
2003	Peru International	Tjitte Weistra	15–4, 15–8	Winner
2003	Giraldilla International	Sho Sasaki	15–11, 6–15, 12–15	Runner-up
2003	Guatemala International	Hidetaka Yamada	11–15, 15–10, 15–8	Winner
2002	South Africa International	Stewart Carson	7–1, 7–0, 7–0	Winner
2002	Spanish International	Dicky Palyama	4–7, 1–7, 7–5	Runner-up
2001	Bulgarian International	Andrew South	7–2, 5–7, 7–2	Winner
2000	Cuba International	Jyri Aalto	15–8, 15–6	Winner
2000	Canadian International	Jyri Aalto	12–15, 15–7, 9–15	Runner-up
2000	Welsh International	Andrew South	1–7, 7–2, 7–5	Winner
2000	Dutch International	Vladislav Druzchenko	15–10, 6–15, 11–15	Runner-up
2000	Croatian International	Jyri Aalto	15–10, 15–13	Winner
1999	Welsh International	Rasmus Wengberg	17–16, 17–14	Winner
1999	Le Volant d'Or de Toulouse	Pullela Gopichand	13–15, 15–14, 6–15	Runner-up
1999	Slovenian International	Kasper Ødum	15–4, 11–15, 15–9	Winner
1999	Chile International	Bobby Milroy	15–9, 15–5	Winner
1999	Peru International	Ardy Wiranata	15–7, 2–15, 9–15	Runner-up
1998	Argentina International			Winner
1998	Brazil International	Jim Ronny Andersen	15–6, 15–8	Winner
1998	Spanish International	Gerben Bruijstens	15–5, 15–1	Winner

Mixed doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2009	Cyprus International	Sarah Thomas	Henry Tam Donna Haliday	18–21, 14–21	Runner-up
2009	Banuinvest International	Sarah Thomas	Valeriy Atrashchenkov Elena Prus	19–21, 12–21	Runner-up

  BWF International Challenge tournament

  BWF International Series tournament

External links

• Richard Vaughan at BWFBadminton.com
• Richard Vaughan at BWF.TournamentSoftware.com (archived, alternate link)
• Richard Vaughan at Olympedia
• Richard Vaughan at Olympics.com
• Richard Vaughan at Team GB
• Richard Vaughan at the Commonwealth Games Federation (archived)
• Richard Vaughan at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games (archived)
• Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 22 February 2010)