Sonya McGinn has become the first ever Irish player to qualify for the Olympic Badminton tournament. Badminton was an Olympic sport for the first time in Atlanta and after a long campaign, McGinn clinched her place by getting to the finals of the recent qualifying tournaments in Chile and Peru. In both of those tournaments she was beaten in the final by the world number 13 Ida Takako of Japan. McGinn is at number 53 in the latest world ranking list.
