Doubles, Mixed

The defending champions Zhang Jun and Gao Ling of China were slight favorites coming into 2004. Since Sydney they had won the 2001 World Championships, and the 2001 and 2003 All-England titles. They had lost the 2003 Worlds in the final to Korea’s Kim Dong-Mun and Na Gyeong-Min, who had won 14 straight World Cup finals in 2003-04, but they lost in the Athina quarters to the Danish pair of Rikke Olsen and Jonas Rasmussen. The semi-finals were highly unusual for Olympic badminton as only one Asian team made it there – Zhang and Gao. They were joined by Olsen/Rasmussen, Danes Mette Schjoldager and Jens Eriksen, and the British team of Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson. Both semis were won in straights, with Zhang/Gao facing Emms/Robertson in the final. The British couple seemed overmatched, losing the first game 15-1, but they came back to win the second game and extend the match. Emms and Robertson led the final game 11-8, but Zhang and Gao scored six consecutive points and won 15-12. Emms and Robertson would win the World Championships in 2006.