(from the thread: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/for...don-Olympics-Day-4-(Tuesday-31st-July)/page60) I happened to read ctjcad's reply and it got me thinking - would the International Olympic Comittee (IOC) ever drop badminton? I thought about this for a while and then read up a little on how other sports were cut from the Olympics and my conclusion is, I don't think badminton is leaving the Olympics anytime soon. The main reason is, the European voting bloc and Asian voting bloc would not vote against cutting badminton, unlike softball/baseball, which had no support from Europe: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2005-07-08-baseball-softball-dropped_x.htm. Obviously, the Asian bloc would never vote against badminton. That leaves Europe, and in my opinion, Europe wouldn't vote against badminton either. If the USA Today article is any accurate, as long as Denmark continues to be a top 5 country in badminton, and England and Germany are possibly a top 10 country in badminton (even France is pretty good now), and premiere badminton events like the All England continue to draw support, I don't see how the European bloc would vote against badminton. Not to mention that England (ie. Nathan Robertson) and Denmark have medaled in badminton in the last 10 years. Also, despite the scandal yesterday involving China and Korea, other sports have survived cheating including sprinting and swimming, so I doubt yesterday's scandal will be a factor in ousting badminton (unless the scandal grows larger or higher publicity scandal appears). What do you the rest of you think? Do you think the IOC would cut badminton from the Olympics within the next 10 years?
it was already brought up back in 2008 OG, i believe there's a thread already on it..even Dr. Kang YJ also mentioned in an interview, when he first started his post as BWF President, to an extent there's no guarantee badminton would still be around in 2016 OG or after..
Why punish the sport? BWF should grow a spine. Just punish the players involved. Or better yet, sell the infamous black cards to spectators, then should the yesterday's drama happens, the crowd can 'harpoon' the players with the card. Can you imagine all the black cards flying towards the court?
Iirc, badminton is already save for the 2020 games. No sports will be cut and there is room for one addition, could be baseball again. One of the reasons they were voted against was the MLB not releasing their players. Ironically the same applies to football in a worse matter and it's never up for discussion . NBA also wanting to implement an Under 23 rule ...
i just read an article from my country today, that the disqualification of the 8 WD players got the Olympics committee to rethink about cutting badminton. at least that was the statement from our country Olympics committee Rita Subowo.
Sadly, whether a sport being cut or replaced in OG has a lot of to do with the politics and profit, rather than the sport itself. If badminton (or table tennis) is cut, or at least brought up to the table, the main reason is "you know who wins too much" and/or "you know who can hardly win". Therefore, if the 8 WD players were not DQed and Wang Xin is not injured, more medals will be won by Asian nations in general (and 1 nation in particular). Then, the argument of "not globalized" will be surfaced again. Anyway, if a decision is already made (or in making), it's always possible to find a good excuse. It's just a matter of which excuse to use, and how to paint it.
Perhaps the Olympics committee should cut themselves loose rather than finding scapgoats to save face. The players did not run the red lights. They simply found routes to avoid red lights in a race and the rules failed to be explicit that it was not allowed.
Will Olympics Games stay forever? Hold on my words, IOC is very keen where does the money flow.... it definitely won't dare to drop badminton from Olympics! Moreover the balance of gravity is shifting, IOC must realize it too well...and be smart enough to be able to sniff where the real money is... If the question is "forever", well i dunno... as it is also unclear whether such Olympics Games itself is able to stay forever... the overall cost, direct & indirect, in hosting it just becoming less and less bearable! Yet if the question is about "within the foreseeable future", then i confide that badminton will stay!!! Btw, does any one think of any more interesting sport to take over badminton in Olympics ???
Maybe they will replace it with Squash instead of adding Squash ... On a sidenote: Dutch men's hockey team had the opportunity to lose and eliminate a big medal rival, Germany, today. Stupid fools actually defeated South Korea 4-2, go figure ...