Badminton Asia Championships
The Badminton Asia Championships (formerly Asian Badminton Championships until 2006) is a tournament organized by governing body Badminton Asia to crown the best badminton players in Asia. The tournament started in 1962 and is held annually since 1991. The event had rotated between team and individual competitions before the team event became null since 1994. At the 2003 event however, there is a controversy when China decided to pull out from the tournament at the last minute. Head coach Li Yongbo said that the tournament did not award any ranking points for the 2004 Summer Olympics event  and wanted to give his players more time to rest. Some of the top players were also willing to pull out from the tournament since the competitiveness of the event was low. Championships. Individual championships. The table below states all the host cities (and their countries) of the Asia Championships. The number of events at each has ranged from one to six, and is given in the right-most column. Team championships. Men's team competition started in 1962 and last played in 1993. In 2016, Badminton Asia decided to create a new men's and women's team championships  which also serves as qualification tournament for the Thomas and Uber Cups Finals. Another new team tournament using mixed team format, named as Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championship (also known as Tong Yun Kai Cup), was initiated in 2017. Both championships are biennial, thus following the same pattern as Thomas & Uber Cups finals and the Sudirman Cup. All-time medal table. Individual championships. From 1994 Asian Badminton Championships: Successful players and national teams. Asian Champions who also became World Champions. List of players who have won Asia Championships and also won the BWF World Championships to become both the Asian  Champion and World Champion. Successful players. Below is the list of the most ever successful players in the Badminton Asia Championships, with 3 or more gold medals. Successful national teams. Below are the gold medal teams, shown by year as against by country. China has been the most successful and the only country to achieve a full slate of golds which they did in 2011. "BOLD highlights the overall winner therefore at that Asia Team Championships"