Kirsty Gilmour

Kirsty Gilmour (born 21 September 1993) is a Scottish badminton player who has represented both Scotland and Great Britain.^[3][4]

Kirsty Gilmour
Gilmour at the 2013 French Open
Personal information
Country	Scotland
Born	(1993-09-21) 21 September 1993 (age 31)[1] Bellshill, Scotland[1]
Residence	Glasgow, Scotland
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight	59 kg (130 lb)
Handedness	Right
Women's singles
Highest ranking	14 (29 September 2016[2])
Current ranking	28 (8 July 2025)
Medal record Women's badminton Representing  Great Britain European Games 2019 Minsk Women's singles 2023 Kraków–Małopolska Women's singles Representing  Scotland Commonwealth Games 2014 Glasgow Women's singles 2018 Gold Coast Women's singles European Championships 2016 La Roche-sur-Yon Women's singles 2017 Kolding Women's singles 2022 Madrid Women's singles 2024 Saarbrücken Women's singles 2025 Horsens Women's singles 2021 Kyiv Women's singles European Women's Team Championships 2020 Liévin Women's team 2024 Łódź Women's team Commonwealth Youth Games 2011 Douglas Girls' singles
BWF profile

Career

Gilmour won the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, losing out to Michelle Li of Canada in the final and becoming the first Scottish player to reach the women's singles finals at the Commonwealth Games.^[5] She jointly won Scottish Young Sports Personality of the Year 2012 with swimmer Craig Benson.^[6]

On 1 May 2016, Gilmour went down fighting to Carolina Marín, in the finals of the European Championship held in La Roche-sur-Yon, settling for the silver medal.^[7]

Making a second appearance at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Gilmour, the eleventh seed, won her opening match against the unseeded Sabrina Jaquet in straight games. However, she lost her second match against the world No. 28 Linda Zetchiri 21–12, 17–21, 16–21, thereby making an exit at the group stage.^[8]

In 2017, she made it back into the final round of the European Championship in Kolding, Denmark but her pace was stopped by defending champion Carolina Marín with score 14–21, 12–21. Gilmour earned a silver medal.^[9]

Gilmour represented Great Britain at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, going out in the group stages after defeating Mahoor Shahzad of Azerbaijan but losing to Japanese fourth seed Akane Yamaguchi.^[10][11]

At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, she again went out in the group stages after winning her opening match against Keisha Fatimah Az Zahra from Azerbaijan ^[12] then losing to China's number six seed He Bingjiao.^[13][14]

Achievements

Commonwealth Games

Women's singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2014	Emirates Arena, Glasgow, Scotland	Michelle Li	14–21, 7–21	Silver
2018	Carrara Sports and Leisure Centre, Gold Coast, Australia	Michelle Li	21–11, 21–16	Bronze

European Games

Women's singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2019	Falcon Club, Minsk, Belarus	Mia Blichfeldt	16–21, 17–21	Silver
2023	Arena Jaskółka, Tarnów, Poland	Carolina Marín	13–21, 11–21	Bronze

European Championships

Women's singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2016	Vendéspace, La Roche-sur-Yon, France	Carolina Marín	12–21, 18–21	Silver
2017	Sydbank Arena, Kolding, Denmark	Carolina Marín	14–21, 12–21	Silver
2021	Palace of Sports, Kyiv, Ukraine	Line Christophersen	13–21, 21–7, 10–21	Bronze
2022	Polideportivo Municipal Gallur, Madrid, Spain	Carolina Marín	10–21, 12–21	Silver
2024	Saarlandhalle, Saarbrücken, Germany	Carolina Marín	11–21, 18–21	Silver
2025	Forum, Horsens, Denmark	Line Kjærsfeldt	16–21, 17–21	Silver

Commonwealth Youth Games

Girls' singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Ref
2011	National Sports Centre, Douglas, Isle of Man	Yang Li Lian	21–16, 22–20	Bronze	[15]

BWF World Tour (2 titles, 2 runners-up)

The BWF World Tour, which was announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018,^[16] is a series of elite badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tour is divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300 (part of the HSBC World Tour), and the BWF Tour Super 100.^[17]

Women's singles

Year	Tournament	Level	Opponent	Score	Result
2018	Scottish Open	Super 100	Line Kjærsfeldt	21–16, 18–21, 21–18	Winner
2019	Orléans Masters	Super 100	Saena Kawakami	8–21, 21–18, 16–21	Runner-up
2019	Russian Open	Super 100	Pai Yu-po	21–9, 19–21, 19–21	Runner-up
2020	SaarLorLux Open	Super 100	Yvonne Li	21–10, 21–17	Winner

BWF Grand Prix (2 titles, 6 runners-up)

The BWF Grand Prix had two levels, the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It was a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and played between 2007 and 2017.

Women's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2013	London Open	Carolina Marín	19–21, 9–21	Runner-up
2013	Scottish Open	Carolina Marín	14–21, 21–11, 13–21	Runner-up
2015	Dutch Open	Karin Schnaase	21–16, 21–13	Winner
2015	Scottish Open	Line Kjærsfeldt	21–16, 16–21, 18–21	Runner-up
2015	U.S. Grand Prix	Pai Yu-po	21–18, 15–21, 15–21	Runner-up
2016	Malaysia Masters	P. V. Sindhu	15–21, 9–21	Runner-up
2017	Canada Open	Saena Kawakami	21–19, 19–21, 18–21	Runner-up
2017	Scottish Open	Mia Blichfeldt	23–21, 21–12	Winner

  BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament

  BWF Grand Prix tournament

BWF International Challenge/Series (10 titles, 6 runners-up)

Women's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2012	Polish International	Panuga Riou	21–12, 21–12	Winner
2012	Czech International	Sashina Vignes Waran	21–18, 10–21, 21–13	Winner
2012	Swiss International	Millicent Wiranto	24–22, 21–17	Winner
2013	Czech International	Cheng Chi-ya	21–18, 21–10	Winner
2014	Swedish Masters	Line Kjærsfeldt	24–22, 12–21, 21–10	Winner
2014	Spanish Open	Carolina Marín	21–19, 21–18	Winner
2015	Swedish Masters	Beatriz Corrales	21–18, 21–19	Winner
2015	Belgian International	Goh Jin Wei	15–21, 18–21	Runner-up
2015	Prague Open	Linda Zechiri	21–16, 21–14	Winner
2017	Austrian Open	Fabienne Deprez	21–17, 21–9	Winner
2017	Orleans International	Lee Ying Ying	22–20, 21–11	Winner
2019	Spanish International	Phittayaporn Chaiwan	12–21, 15–21	Runner-up

Women's doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2012	Czech International	Jillie Cooper	Heather Olver Kate Robertshaw	16–21, 15–21	Runner-up
2012	Welsh International	Jillie Cooper	Lauren Smith Gabrielle White	7–21, 14–21	Runner-up
2013	Czech International	Jillie Cooper	Imogen Bankier Petya Nedelcheva	6–21, 14–21	Runner-up
2014	Spanish Open	Imogen Bankier	Gabriela Stoeva Stefani Stoeva	14–21, 9–21	Runner-up

  BWF International Challenge tournament

  BWF International Series tournament

  BWF Future Series tournament

Record against selected opponents

Record against Year-end Finals finalists, World Championships semifinalists, and Olympic quarterfinalists. Accurate as of 28 November 2022.

Players Matches Results Difference Won Lost Petya Nedelcheva 7 4 3 +1 Chen Yufei 1 0 1 –1 He Bingjiao 4 2 2 0 Li Xuerui 1 0 1 –1 Wang Shixian 2 0 2 –2 Wang Yihan 1 0 1 –1 Zhang Yiman 1 1 0 +1 Tai Tzu-ying 5 0 5 –5 Saina Nehwal 7 0 7 –7 P. V. Sindhu 2 1 1 0

Players Matches Results Difference Won Lost Lindaweni Fanetri 1 1 0 +1 Minatsu Mitani 2 0 2 –2 Nozomi Okuhara 2 0 2 –2 Akane Yamaguchi 4 0 4 –4 An Se-young 5 0 5 –5 Bae Yeon-ju 2 0 2 –2 Sung Ji-hyun 2 0 2 –2 Carolina Marín 10 2 8 –6 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 3 0 3 –3 Ratchanok Intanon 9 1 8 –7

Personal life

Gilmour is currently based in Glasgow.^[18] Kirsty Gilmour studied at University of the West of Scotland's Ayr Campus graduating with a BA in Creative Industries Practice in 2015.

Gilmour is openly lesbian^[19] and uses she/her and they/them pronouns. She is currently the only openly LGBT badminton player to be ranked in the top 100 of any event and is one of very few openly LGBT professional badminton players.^[20]

See also

• Scottish National Badminton Championships