About Taufik Hidayat
Taufik Hidayat is an Indonesian retired badminton player who is the current Deputy Minister for Youth and Sport of Indonesia. He is a former World champion, Olympic gold medalist, two time Asian Games gold medalist, and three time Asian champion. He is a 6 time Indonesia Open winner. He is the youngest player to have reached the world number one ranking in the men's single. Known as 'Mr Backhand', he is considered one of the greats in men's singles badminton. Just at 15, Hidayat won the boy's single event by defeating his future rival, Chen Hong in the final. Hidayat won the men's singles gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics defeating Hidetaka Yamada of Japan and Wong Choong Hann of Malaysia in the first two rounds. At age 17, he won the Brunei Open and reached the semifinals of the 1998 Asian Championships and the Indonesia Open.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.