At which Olympics did badminton first appear as a demonstration sport?

Badminton first appeared as a demonstration sport at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The Munich Games included badminton as an exhibition event before the sport received full Olympic medal status. The demonstration matches helped introduce badminton to a broader international audience and showed that the sport was developing beyond its traditional strongholds.

Badminton later appeared as an exhibition sport at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It became a full Olympic sport at Barcelona in 1992, when men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, and women's doubles were contested.

Mixed doubles was added to the Olympic programme at Atlanta in 1996. This timeline is a common source of confusion: 1972 marks the first Olympic appearance, while 1992 marks the official medal debut. The 1972 demonstration events therefore did not award Olympic medals.