Camilla Martin: Denmark’s Queen of Badminton

Camilla Martin is a retired badminton player from Denmark who ruled the court in the 1990s. She, along with Lene Køppen, is the only Danish woman badminton player to have won both the All England and World Championships singles titles.

Camilla came from a sporting background. Her father is former Danish footballer Bent Martin and her brother is the former Danish footballer Ken Martin.

Camilla began her badminton career by playing in various junior-level championships. She won a gold medal at the European Junior Championships in girls’ singles in 1989 in Manchester, England. She won a silver in doubles category along with partner Helene Kirkegaard.

She won a silver in girls’ singles at the World Junior Championships in 1989 in Jakarta, Indonesia and bagged a bronze in the following year.

Camilla won five consecutive golds from 1996 to 2004 at the European Mixed Team Championships. She won the Danish national championships 13 years consecutively, from 1991 to 2003.

The shuttler clichéd the women’s singles title in the 1999 World Championships in Copenhagen and won a bronze medal in the 1994 World Cup in Ho Chi Minh. She won three European Championships titles in women’s singles- 1996 Herning, 1998 Sofia and 2000 Glasgow. She won a silver at the 1992 Glasgow European Championships and a bronze medal each at 2002 Malmö and 2004 Geneva.

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The Danish badminton player featured in four Olympics- Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. He won a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and has been deprived of the Olympic gold, the only major tournament she did not win in her illustrious career.

On the personal front, Camilla married economist Lars Nygaard on May 25, 2005, and changed her name to Camilla Martin Nygaard. She currently works as co-host of the Danish football magazine, Onside.