Richard Vaughan, 26, from Llanbradach is undoubtedly the comeback kid of world badminton.

A hip injury sustained in 1997 forced him out of the game for twelve months and experts were fearful that the star would never play again.

As a consequence to that injury, Richard's career has long been plagued by scar tissue trouble which - on occasions - has threatened his promising on-court performances.

Luckily those threats have never been realised and this summer, Richard will take to the court in Athens for what will be his second Olympic Games. He, together with Kelly Morgan will be flying the flag for Wales as part of Team GB and he is the only British representative in the men's singles.

He will, no doubt, be looking to better his stunning performance in the 2000 Games when he reached the last 16 in the competition. The Sydney display sent Richard to the dizzy heights of world number eight.

"Sydney was a great Olympic games for me and really gave me a platform to build on," said Vaughan.

"My aim is definitely to build on that and go one step further. If I do that then I can't really have many complaints because I've been hampered by injuries since Sydney and haven't been at my best."

In 2002, Richard won bronze at Manchester's Commonwealth Games.

Vaughan's Athens qualification campaign has shown that he is an almighty force in the competitive arena. His most notable scalp of the period came at the All England Championships in Birmingham when he trounced the current World Champion, Xuanze Xia from China.

"It was great to finally get the call into the GB squad, especially after all the trouble with my hip injury," said Vaughan.

"Normally I would have qualified quite easily but having a set-back like that made it a huge challenge. Especially when the doctors didn't know what was going to happen with the re-hab, so it was a great relief to make the team.

"It was a struggle to make the team, because of my hip operation I missed half of the year through injury so therefore only had half the normal time to rack up the amount of raking points I needed.

"But the whole process has made me a lot stronger both mentally and physically and I don't foresee any problems going into the Olympic games.

The 26-year-old is currently ranked at number 30 in the world and - like Kelly - is supported by the Sports Council for Wales's lite Cymru scheme. He is coached by Chinese shuttler and Wales National Coach Zhou Junling.