Harnessing Talent Athlete

Tracey Hallam - Olympian - Badminton

Biography:
Tracey first represented England against China in 1997 and has been playing since the age of seven. She was selected to represent GB at the 2004 Summer Olympics after a string of strong performance. In the women's singles, she defeated Juliane Schenk of Germany and Camilla Martin of Denmark in the first two rounds. In the quarter finals, Tracey lost to Mia Audina of the Netherlands 11-0, 11-9.

After ankle surgery in September of 2006, Tracey had fallen as far as No. 45 in the world by the time of her return in February of the next year. While there were rough moments in her climb back into the top 20, Tracey used lower grade tournaments to boost her ranking. In 2007, she won the Vietnam international challenge tournament then on return the following week won the Toulouse International Challenge Tournament. Soon she was competing in Grand Prix gold events again and was in the China Super Series tournament in the same month. 

By August 2007, she had returned to the top 20 and cemented her stay there with a quarter-final appearance at the World Championships. Though she did not win any events, Tracey used quarter-final finishes at the Hong Kong Super Series and 2008 European Championships to earn a world's No. 14 ranking and an Olympic bid. 

Prior to her injury, Tracey's career had been in the process of taking off. After achieving a Team Silver and winning the title of women's singles at Commonwealth Games in 2006 without dropping a game, and having moved from bronze to silver then to gold position, she experienced her best finish to date at the Malaysia Open - one of the premier events in the badminton season -- with a runner-up finish. In the tournament, she knocked off Pi Hongyan of France and China's Xie Xingfang (the current No. 1 and reigning world champion) and Wang Lin. She lost to defending Olympic champion Zhang Ning in the final. She participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the Women's singles event but she was knocked out in the third round by Xu Huaiwen of Germany (21-10, 21-7). 

Click here to see Tracey's Competitive Record and more sporting information