Ye Zhaoying

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Ye Zhaoying (叶钊颖; born 7 May 1974) is a retired badminton player from Hangzhou, China. She is tall and played right-handed. She became world No. 1 in women’s singles for the first time in December 1995 and was among the sport’s top players through the late 1990s.

Her major titles include the World Championships in 1995 and 1997, and the All-England titles in 1997, 1998, and 1999. She also won the World Cup in 1995 and was part of China’s winning teams at the Uber Cup (1992, 1998, 2000) and the Sudirman Cup (1995, 1997). She earned a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics after reaching the semi-finals.

Ye was inducted into the World Badminton Hall of Fame in 2009. She retired after the 2000 Olympics and took up golf in 2002, training at the Tian An Golf Club.

In 2019 she married former football star Hao Haidong, and the couple later moved to Málaga, Spain. Their relationship with China became controversial after Hao posted politically charged messages in 2020, and their Chinese social media accounts were removed. In a 2022 interview, Ye said Chinese coaches had pressured her to lose the 2000 Olympic semi-final to help a teammate win gold, a claim that drew a response from the Chinese embassy. Since then, Ye and Hao have lived in Spain.