Background
Under the guidance of his father, Rashid and the rest of his siblings were trained to be champions.
Under the guidance of his father, Rashid and the rest of his siblings were trained to be champions.
Junior years
His name became great references after winning the National championship U-18 by beating Kwan Yoke Meng in 1984, at which time he was studying as form 3 in Victoria Institution. Breakthrough and dominance
After the completion of his Sijil Penilaian Menengah (SPM) exam, he was injected into the Project 1988/90 squad set to regain the Thomas Cup. Rashid replied to a trust, by showing impressive run but Malaysia lost the finals to China 1-4.
He was known by many as “jaguh kampung” - whatever it is not enough to challenge his credibility as a leading world class player.
However, Rashid bounce back in 1996, putting him in the top 3 best players in the world by winning the Asia Cup and German Open, then advancing to the final of the All England before losing to Paul-Erik Hoyer Larsen from Denmark. Moreover, in the year of 1997, Rashid was named as the number one badminton player by International Badminton Federation (IBF).
He began to make room for players like Wong Choong Hann, Yong Hock Kin and Roslin Hashim to rise up, and retired in 2000.
He won the bronze medal in the men"s singles at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Rashid became the youngest player to win the National Junior Badminton championship in 1980 at the age of 12. In 1985, he won the Asian Youth Championship beating Allan Budi Kusuma of Indonesia. He won the Malaysian Open title three years consecutively during the year 1990, 1991, and 1992. In the Thomas Cup final in 1992, he beat Ardy Wiranata to give Malaysia the first point in the route won a dramatic 3-2 win over rivals Indonesia - the first championship in 25 years, and the last to this day. Accomplishments came as a tumbling for a period of three years thereafter. He won the bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics after beating Indonesia"s 1995 world champion, Heryanto Arbi, 5-15, 15-11, 15-6 and overthrew first seeded players, Joko Suprianto of Indonesia in route to the semi-finals, before bowing out to China, Dong Jiong.
