Badminton player
Leanne Choo (born 5 June, 1991) is a female badminton player from Australia. Choo is the reigning Oceania Champion in women's and mixed doubles. She represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics, alongside women's doubles partner, Renuga Veeran.
Personal
Leanne, nicknamed Choo, Choobuka and Cheanne Loo, was born on 5 June 1991 in Adelaide, South Australia.[1] She attended Glen Osmond Primary School in South Australia and then graduated from the highly reputable Glenunga International High School.[2] In 2010, she enrolled at the University of Adelaide to study a degree in architecture.[1][2] Choo is a member of the Sturt Badminton Club, the largest and most popular badminton club in South Australia.
Career
Choo started playing badminton when she was eight years old.[1] She rose to prominence as a junior winning multiple junior and senior national championships in women's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. Due to her ongoing success, she was made a member of the Australian National Team. As a member of the national team, she is based at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, in Melbourne, Victoria.[3]
Choo has represented Australia multiple times including at the 2006, 2007 and 2009 World Junior Championships. She continued representing Australia at a junior level at the 2007 Australian Youth Olympic Festival and the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India. Her senior debut was at the Uber Cup in 2008. She went onto compete for Australia at the 2010 and 2012 Editions. Choo has also represented Australia at the World Mixed Team Championships, the Sudirman Cup in 2011 and 2015.[1]
At the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, Choo and Renuga Veeran. almost staged an upset in the quarterfinals against the number one seeds from Singapore, Yao Lei and Shinta Mulia Sari. This was the first international tournament that Choo and Veeran had competed in.[4]
Choo and Veeran also competed at the 2011 BWF World Championships in London where they reached they demolished Steffi Annys and Severine Corvilain of Germany 21-6, 21-9, before losing to 10th seeds and eventual bronze medalists of the 2012 Summer Olympics, Valeria Sorokina and Nina Vislova of Russia in three games.[5]
2012 Summer Olympics
Choo was named as part of Australia's badminton team for the 2012 Summer Olympics, in London[6][7][8] and made her Olympic debut as a 21 year old.[2] Going into the Olympics, Choo and Veeran were ranked 35th in the world. During the qualifying process, their ranking peaked at 26.[9] At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Choo and Veeran performed well in their round robin matches thrashing their South African opponents and staying in contention with their Korean and Indonesian opponents, ranked world number three end eight respectively at the time. Unfortunately, they placed third in their pool and could not advance. However, the Korean and Indonesian pairs, alongside two other pairs in another group were disqualified for attempting to intentionally lose matches so they would have an easier match-up in the quarterfinals. The duo advance to the quarterfinals, where they were defeated by Alex Bruce and Michelle Li of Canada. They were awarded a 5th placing, the best result in Australia's history of Olympic badminton. [10][11]
Results from 2012 Summer Olympics
Australia
