Imogen Bankier retires from badminton at age of 28
World silver medal winner Imogen Bankier has retired from badminton at the age of 28, saying she no longer had the required motivation.
The Scot is to pursue a business career, helping establish a Paris branch of The Whisky Shop, set up by her father Ian, the Celtic chairman.
"It is not a decision I've taken lightly," Bankier told BBC Scotland.
"I've taken almost a full year to contemplate while I've played a little bit and trained a little bit."
Bankier won silver in the mixed doubles at the World Championships in 2011. With English partner Chris Adcock, she defeated four seeds before losing to Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei, the world number one pair, in the final.
The pair followed that with bronze at the European Championships the following year, but she split from the Great Britain programme after a first-round defeat at the London 2012 Olympics saying she did not believe it would help her qualify for Rio in 2016.
Bankier teamed up with Robert Blair to win Commonwealth bronze at Glasgow 2014 before taking a sabbatical from the sport in February and announcing she would not try to qualify for the Olympics because of difficulties over finding a new partner.
"I've achieved many of the goals I set out to achieve when I was 10 years old and decided I wanted to go down the path of playing badminton," she said.
"I achieved so much early on and I feel like I've got to the stage where there's nothing left that is really driving me forward.
"It is such a hard lifestyle to maintain when you are not 100% motivated and, when you have done it for more than 10 years, it takes its toll.
"I felt it was a good time to call it a day and move on to something new."
World silver medal winner Imogen Bankier has retired from badminton at the age of 28, saying she no longer had the required motivation.
The Scot is to pursue a business career, helping establish a Paris branch of The Whisky Shop, set up by her father Ian, the Celtic chairman.
"It is not a decision I've taken lightly," Bankier told BBC Scotland.
"I've taken almost a full year to contemplate while I've played a little bit and trained a little bit."
Bankier won silver in the mixed doubles at the World Championships in 2011. With English partner Chris Adcock, she defeated four seeds before losing to Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei, the world number one pair, in the final.
The pair followed that with bronze at the European Championships the following year, but she split from the Great Britain programme after a first-round defeat at the London 2012 Olympics saying she did not believe it would help her qualify for Rio in 2016.
Bankier teamed up with Robert Blair to win Commonwealth bronze at Glasgow 2014 before taking a sabbatical from the sport in February and announcing she would not try to qualify for the Olympics because of difficulties over finding a new partner.
"I've achieved many of the goals I set out to achieve when I was 10 years old and decided I wanted to go down the path of playing badminton," she said.
"I achieved so much early on and I feel like I've got to the stage where there's nothing left that is really driving me forward.
"It is such a hard lifestyle to maintain when you are not 100% motivated and, when you have done it for more than 10 years, it takes its toll.
"I felt it was a good time to call it a day and move on to something new."