Badminton at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's singles Badminton at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's singles The badminton women's singles tournament at the 2012 Olympic Games in London took place from 28 July to 4 August at Wembley Arena. The draw was held on 23 July 2012. Forty-six players from 42 nations competed. In an all-Chinese final, Li Xuerui defeated reigning world number one Wang Yihan to win the gold medal. India's Saina Nehwal took bronze. For the first time, the preliminary stage consisted of 16 groups of either two or three players. Each played every other member of the group with the top players advancing to
Badminton at the 2012 Summer Olympics for the groups was held on 23 July 2012. The Olympic qualification period was between 2 May 2011 and 29 April 2012, and the Badminton World Federation rankings list, published on 3 May 2012, was used to allocate spots. Nations could enter a maximum of three players. Three quota places if three players are ranked four or above, two if two players are ranked 16 or above and otherwise one quota place until the quota contingent of 38 is filled. For each male player who qualifies in more than one discipline, an additional quota place in the men's singles becomes