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 free. If no player from one continent can qualify, the best ranked player from this continent gets a quota place. On 1 August 2012, four teams were ejected from the competition for "not using one's best efforts to win a match" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport" following matches the previous evening during which the pairs were accused of trying to lose in order to manipulate the draw. These teams were disqualified: Badminton at the 2012 Summer Olympics The badminton tournaments at the 2012 Olympic Games in London took place between