Yoo Yeon-seong
Lee Yong-dae and partner Yoo Yeon-seong started off the year at the 2016 German Open Grand Prix Gold and lost to compatriots Ko Sung-hyun and Shin Baek-cheol in the finals. They reached the semi-finals at the 2016 All England Super Series Premier but suffered a shock loss to unseeded Russian pair Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov, who went on to take their first Super Series title. They also reached the semi-finals stage of the 2016 Malaysia Super Series Premier and the 2016 Singapore Super Series, but were knocked out by compatriots Kim Gi-jung and Kim Sa-rang, and Chinese pair Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan, respectively. Both pairs went on to win the tournaments. Lee and Yoo won their first title of 2016 at the China Masters against Kim Gi-jung and Kim Sa-rang, and their second at the Asian Championships against unseeded Chinese pairing of Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen. They then contested the 2016 Thomas Cup representing Korea, and won three out of four matches they played, their only loss coming from eventual finalists, Indonesia's Ahsan and Setiawan. Lee and Yoo then won their first Superseries title of the year, and their third in total, at the Indonesia Open, beating China's fifth seeds Chai Biao and Hong Wei in the final. They represented Korea at the 2016 Summer Olympics as the top seeds, but crashed out in the quarter-finals to unseeded Malaysian pair Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong which was their second losses in 9 meetings with the Malaysian pair. Lee announced that he would retire following the 2016 Summer Olympics, with his last tournament being the Korea Open in September in which he won alongside his partner Yoo Yeon-seong against the Chinese Li and Liu pair.