Looking at the dummy lists released we see that some very lowly pairs qualify by virtue of being their countries no.1 and other pairs just outside the top 16 wouldn't qualify because they come from stronger countries. Surely it should be the top 18 pairs qualify with the only exception being a max of 3 per nationality. For example on the dummy mens doubles list: Not qualifying WR 17 CHENG Rui (CHN) / 10644 - CHEN Qiqiu (CHN) CHINA 3 WR 22 WIJAYA Candra (INA) / 4392 - HARYANTO Halim (INA) Ina 2 Qualifying WR 44 8138 - SHIRLEY Daniel A (NZL) / 11209 - GORDON John (NZL) NZL1 WR 60 9106 - CARSON ~ Stewart (RSA) / 13318 - JAMES Dorian (RSA) RSA1 With respect the two qualifying pairs shouldn't have a slot in an olympic draw of only 19 pairs and the 2 non qualifying pairs would be medal hopes. Of course this will change by April but there will be similar unfairness then. Another example in mens singles dummy list WR 121 DEDNAM Chris RSA qualifies where as WR 18 HASHIM Muhd Hafiz B doesn't! I realise there are very limited places but this attempt to widen the number of qualifying nations merely devalues the competition. As an alternative having the top 12 qualifying and the players 13-50 play a single pre olympic qual event would be preferable!
i understand you and in a way I agree. But if badminton has to become more popular we have to invite other countries than the powerhouses. But I understand that you think it's a shame that top pairs or singles can't compete because of a lower ranked player or pair has to compete because of a number one status in his/her country.
This is not specific to badminton, it is an OLYMPIC RULE : in each olympic disciplin whatever the sport, it is compulsary to have at least one representant of each continent.
in a competition, we'd like to maximize competition as well as diversification. however, badminton is a sport which has a lop-sided domination from a handful of countries/continents, the goals of competition/diversification then conflicts, if we want competition, then we inadvertantly excluded the lower entries from less represented countries/continents, if we choose diversity, then we will inevitably be allowing lower ranked players to enter while medium ranked do not. either way is, well, correct. it depends what the competition has emphasis on. the Olympics is a game of all nations, and it appears that their policy is diversification. which i agree on. however, if it is say, the World Championships, then i'd put more emphasis competition instead.
Err, life is not that perfect There is an exception to your above statement. Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards The comically inept British "ski jumper" By Gerry Brown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He soared like a brick into the hearts of Olympic fans across the world. Eddie Edwards, a comically inept British "ski jumper" didn't come close to winning any medals. In fact, he finished dead last in both the 70- and 90-meter jumps. He did, however, win a large amount of fame and a small fortune thanks to his complete lack of skill and loveably goofy look. Sarcastically nicknamed "the Eagle," he dropped into the public consciousness and was easily the most popular athlete to compete at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary. The doughy, bespectacled former plasterer with the silly grin parlayed his 15 minutes of fame into a $65,000 deal to tell his life story to a tabloid and—no joke—a number-two song ("Mun Niemi En Eetu" or "My Name is Eddie") in Finland in 1991. Even IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, though privately critical of Edwards for appearing to mock the Games with his fish-out-of-water performance, seemed to embrace him during his speech at the closing ceremonies. At Calgary people set new goals, created new world records, and some even flew like an eagle," he said to raucous applause. Despite the kind words, the IOC subsequently instituted what is known as the Eddie the Eagle Rule, which requires Olympic hopefuls to finish in the top half of an international competition. This effectively eliminated Edwards from future Games. It's not that Edwards, now a law student in England, hasn't tried an Olympic comeback, but the new IOC rule has done its job. The IOC rules can't keep Edwards out of Hollywood, however. His life story is soon to be made into a movie.
These are the five Continental Confederations champions, under olympic selection confederation champions - Oceania (Australia, New Zealand), Africa (South Africa etc), Asia, Europe and Pan-America (USA, Canada etc).
Ok I see that there are continental representations but what does that mean? Does anyone really cover / watch an event because someone from their continent is involved. I mean English are more likely to support Australians or Americans than French or Germans Continents are surely arbitrary groups of countries. The field should be bigger or the qual rules should recognise the top players. Different sports favour different continents and will be popular in different continents, badminton viewing figures will be massive in asian and tiny in USA, swimming is big in australia, artificially placing continental representatives won't alter that. If they want to see more nations in the badminton Olympics lets see an additional surdiman style team event with every country invited!
Please see Olympic Qualifying Document from World Badminton site I cannot attcahed this document - as it is a pdf, and I cannot save in another format - as I only have a PDF viewer at work. This has happended at every olympics, it is basically to stop the entire representation from just strong nations (and some smaller nations using exlusively or part contract players from stronger nations) After all if it was truly about the best players then from the top twenty you would only see 5 Chinese, 2 Koreans, 4 Malaysians, 4 Danes, 2 Indonesians, 2 Honkies, and 1 Singaporean. Pos ID Surname Name 1 9689 CHEN Hong CHN 2 50906 LIN Dan CHN 3 11704 LEE Hyun II KOR 4 4240 WONG Choong Hann MAS 5 7738 XIA Xuanze CHN 6 4762 JONASSEN Kenneth DEN 7 51274 BAO Chunlai CHN 8 10183 SHON Seung Mo KOR 9 50931 CHEN Yu CHN 10 6926 GADE Peter DEN 11 7561 BOESEN Anders DEN 12 50427 KUNCORO Sony Dwi INA 13 9662 NG Wei HKG 14 7012 KALDAU Niels Christian DEN 15 10337 HIDAYAT Taufik INA 16 50170 SUSILO Ronald SIN 17 7790 HASHIM M. Roslin MAS 18 12370 HASHIM Muhd Hafiz B MAS 19 50500 HARIYANTO * Agus HKG 20 50152 LEE Chong Wei MAS Not to mention Country problems like Wales, England Scotland having to compete as Great Britian, but countres Hong Kong competing on their own - not part of China!
