Paisan Rangsikitpho

Paisan Rangsikitpho has dedicated the last twenty five years of his life helping to organize and develop badminton both here in the U.S. and across the world. 

He first became interested in USA Badminton while serving as President of the Southern California Badminton Association. Up until 1989, USA Badminton did not have a proper structure for Technical Officials including Referees, Umpires, and Line Judges. As such many intentional and un-intentional mistakes were made, and Paisan found that many players were frustrated by inconsistencies in something as basic as scoring.

Kelly Tibbetts can be credited with getting him started running tournaments and officiating. Modeling the officiating and certification criteria from the IBF organization, Paisan quickly brought USA Badminton up to speed.  This initial success propelled Paisan to pursue greater and greater challenges in the world badminton arena.

In his career, Paisan has had a major hand in the officiating and rule-making of badminton across the world. He is a founder of  the Technical Official Committee for USA Badminton and the Pan American Badminton Confederation. He has conducted several international badminton umpire and referee courses, written the Umpire Training Syllabus, and created the Umpire Score sheet for World Badminton Federation. He is also the author of the new Rally Point Scoring system (3 X 21) which has helped make the game much more exciting, quicker, and amenable to broadcasters. As an umpire, he had the honor of being the first U.S. umpire to officiate at the Olympic Games, which took place in Atlanta

As an organizer, Paisan also has several notable achievements. He was the first to organize the U.S. Open like an WBF Grand Prix event. He was also the first to organize the Badminton World Championships in the U.S. Internationally, he created the Super Series circuit tournaments, modernized the presentation and TV broadcast for BWF World Championships, a new tournament structure for the BWF, and new World Ranking for the World Badminton Federation.

On a personal note, Paisan considers Kelly Tibbetts of USA and Neil Cameron of the IBF to be his mentors. He is a dedicated father of four and grandfather of two. His hobbies include racket sports, working out, bicycling, and snow skiing. He has a Bachelor degree in Zoology and a Masters in Entomology. His favorite badminton athletes include: Gao Ling, Thomas Lund, and Paul Erik Hoyer Larsen.