Lee Yong Dae

Lee Yong-dae (Hangul; Hanja; born September 11, 1988 in Hwasun, Jeollanam-do) is a male badminton player from South Korea. He is considered by many to be a great talent and already a wonderful doubles player. His current partners are Jung Jae-sung in men's doubles (as of 2006) and Lee Hyo-jung in mixed doubles (as of 2007).
Lee Yong Dae started playing badminton at his local elementary school at the age of 8. His youth club is Samsung Electromechanics. He joined the national badminton team of South Korea in 2003, at the age of just 15 years old.
Lee participated in the OCBC/Yonex US Open, where he played in both the Men Doubles and Singles category. For both events, he was ousted in the second round.
Lee started off 2004 with the French Open International, where he played the men singles, men doubles (with Jung Jung Yong) and mixed doubles (with Kang Hae Won) category. In the Mixed Doubles event, the pair managed to reach the semi-finals, before losing to the Russians. He also participated in several tournaments without much results. In the Vietnam Satellite, he reached the quarter-finals in the Mixed Doubles category, partnering Oh Seul Ki.
Still struggling to find the right partner, he played several tournaments without getting any big results. However, he did reach the finals of the Cheers Asian Satellite in the mixed doubles and the men doubles category. With Ha Jung-eun as his partner, he won Asian Junior Badminton Championships.
In July, Lee captured three gold medals at the Asian Junior Championships in Cheras, Malaysia where he played a pivotal role to secure the boys doubles and mixed doubles victories for South Korea and frustrate Malaysia in the mixed team final.
In November, Lee made another gold medal hat trick at the BWF World Junior Championships where he led Team Korea to their first world junior championship, never allowing any single set in boys doubles, mixed doubles and mixed team event through the tournament.