The history of badminton in Korea can be traced to the year 1945. In the ensuing era, the YMCA was the major catalyst in the rapid growth of the sport's popularity in Korea. In 1957, Mr. Choi Kun Woo was elected as the first president of the Korea Badminton Association and this development proved instrumental in the nurturing of future local badminton talent. In its debut at the 5th Asian Games in 1966, the Korea won the bronze medal in the women's team competition. This was the start of an age of exceptional international performances for Korea. In 1981, Hwang Sun Ai won the women's singles title at the 17th All England Championships. At the same event, Kim Yun Ja and Yoo Sang Hee won 3rd place in women's doubles. The following year, Park Joo Bong and Kim Moon Soo won the men's doubles gold medal in the Denmark Open and in 1985, they won their first of two World Championship gold medals. Apart from these great achievements by Korean players, another meaningful event for Korean badminton was that the sport was chosen as demonstration event at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. When badminton became a full medal event at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, Park Joo Bong and Kim Moon Soo again won gold for Korea in men's doubles while Hwang Hye Young and Chung So Young added another gold in women's doubles. Bang Soo Hyun won the silver in women's singles. At the next Olympics, in Atlanta in 1996, Ms. Bang added a gold medal to her collection after beating the 1992 gold medalist, Indonesia's Susi Susanti, in the semi-finals. The same year, Kim Dong Moon and Gil Young Ah won gold in the mixed doubles, beating Park Joo Bong and Ra Kyung Min. The next two Olympics saw several more medals for Korea including another men's doubles gold in 2004 for Kim Dong Moon and Ha Tae Kwun and another mixed gold by Lee Yong Dae and Lee Hyo Jung in 2008. Today, Korea has over 1.35 million badminton players and while Korea's national team continues to win medals in international events, the sport continues to grow in popularity at home among both recreational and competitive players of all levels. 1991 saw the introduction of the 1st Korea Open, sporting the motto of 'Love, Harmony, and Global Communication through Badminton'. 250 players from 24 countries competed for prize money totalling US$100,000. Over the years, the Korea Open has ridden along among the top events of the Badminton World Federation calendar in both prize money and rating, culminating this year with its selection as the inaugural event in the new Premier Super Series. The 2011 Korea Open is the first million-dollar badminton tournament in history with a total prize purse of US$1.2 million.