The Southeast Asians will think it is insane to consider badminton a 'Winter' sport... We play badminton all throughout the year without ever seeing 'Winter'... Actually, badminton lovers [ALL OVER THE WORLD] play badminton all year long. Basketball and volleyball lovers play their respective sport all year long toooo... Hahaha... And the Winter games generate almost ZERO interest for the people who live in the tropical areas... Ahem, and there are 2 billion of us who are like that. Keep badminton in the Summer games, where all 7 billion people on this planet are interested.
China's Yu quits badminton China's Yu quits badminton after Olympic match-fixing disqualification Yu Yang, one of eight competitors who deliberately played to lose, makes announcement as Beijing orders public apology Tania Branigan in Beijing, Peter Walker in London and agencies guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 August 2012 08.00 BST Olympic badminton doubles champion Yu Yang, second from right, has quit the sport after being disqualified from London 2012 for throwing a match. Photograph: Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters The Chinese Olympic badminton doubles champion Yu Yang has announced she is quitting the sport, hours after being disqualified from the Olympics for deliberately throwing a match. Beijing, meanwhile, has ordered its badminton team to apologise for the fiasco. "This is my last competition. Goodbye Badminton World Federation, goodbye my beloved badminton," the 26-year-old wrote on the country's Weibo microblogging service. Her message came shortly after state news agency Xinhua announced that Chinese officials had ordered Yu, her partner Wang Xiaoli and the head of their Olympic badminton team to publicly apologise. Yu and her teammate Wang Xiaoli were disqualified by badminton's governing body on Wednesday along with two South Korean pairs and an Indonesian duo for "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport". The round-robin arrangements gave players an interest in losing so that they could face easier contests at the elimination stage. But spectators booed them off the court, enraged by the farcical matches in which players deliberately served into the net, hit shots wide or missed easy returns. Xinhua quoted an unnamed spokesman as saying: "The [Chinese] delegation has already severely criticised and educated the responsible badminton leaders, team and relevant players and demanded they profoundly recognise the seriousness and the harmfulness of this matter, reflect deeply on it, publicly apologise and resolutely prevent such incidents from happening again." Li Yongbo, chief coach of the Chinese badminton team, said his players' behaviour reflected the shortcomings of the new rules but said that was no excuse. "The key point is we did not behave professionally as athletes and did not treat each match seriously," he told Xinhua. "We didn't strive with all our might in the Olympic way ... As chief coach I really feel I must say sorry to fans and viewers nationwide." The international governing body for the sport has already apologised. "We are very, very sorry that this has happened, both for the players and for the sport," said Thomas Lund, chief executive of the Badminton World Federation (BWF). Lund said it took the problem very seriously but claimed that overall the group stages had been "a tremendous success". He dismissed as "hindsight" the widespread criticism that officials should have predicted the fiasco when they adopted the new format. Several people, including employees of the federation, have said concerns about the format had been raised long before the Games. The British badminton player Gail Emms, who won silver in the mixed doubles at the 2004 Games, said: "As soon as I heard about the group stage six or seven months ago, I went: 'That's going to see people trying to fix the draw.' I knew it could happen. "It's unfair to all the players. They just wanted to be medallists for their country. It's a tactic. This is why you need straight knockouts." The chaos began when a Danish duo unexpectedly beat the second-seeded Chinese pair, meaning that China's top seeds would have faced their compatriots in a match if they won at the group stage. The second seeds remain in the contest. Before Yu's resignation the Chinese Olympic delegation said its athletes had "violated the Olympics ideal and the spirit of fair play". It did not appeal against the disqualification of the players. South Korea unsuccessfully appealed for the reinstatement of Jung Kyun-eun and Kim Ha-na, who were Yu and Wang's opponents, and two more players, Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung. Indonesia challenged the disqualification of Meiliana Jauhari and Greysia Polii but later withdrew the appeal. An Indian complaint that a Japanese duo attempted to throw another match was rejected. In China reaction to the disqualification of its champions has been mixed, with widespread sympathy for the athletes, even from those who believed the BWF had acted correctly. Some web users said they had not fully understood the criticism until they saw the match. "Having seen the highlights video I became quite angry," wrote a journalist, Cez Lin. "Although the match means paying attention to the strategies and tactics, to do it like this was unworthy of those who bought tickets and sat in front of the TV waiting to watch. Too irresponsible! The disqualification is as it should be." But others voiced anger with the organisers, with one microblogger writing: "This is a mistake with the arrangements and you cannot allow the athletes to shoulder the blame." Another pointed out: "Although it goes against the spirit of sports, the Olympic committee did not clearly rule this out in the regulations." Fans reacted with dismay to Yu's announcement, with several seeing the athletes as the victims. "I would support them if they were brave enough to say their coach put them up to it," wrote one microblog user. Another said: "It is not fair to criticise Yu Yang. She is a victim of the badminton match system. We should encourage her to stand up again, not attack her. She did it for the team and she sacrificed her interest. Chinese people should support her, understand her and be proud of her."
does anyone have any link to the complete footage as how they got disqualified? somehow youtube has no videos regarding these matches. pls...
The new RR format is like the speed traps that some of us are aware of. By changing the speed limit, many drivers could become "criminals". I still maintain, if absolute individual effort is to be encouraged, restricts each country to just 1 entry (maybe 2, and put them on separate halves).
26 yrs old is still pretty young for Yu Yang to retire, imo...but with the boat load of younger CHN WD players still waiting to get a chance to play, i'd be surprised if she's to play again for CHN..thus this is most likely her final international tourney..
their tactic, not them, may be stupid but they took a gamble (with the knowledge they'll be canned/DQed if worse comes to worst; i guess they're prepared for it)...it's a wasted effort in trying to qualify for this yr's OG, but can always look at it another way in that in 4 more yrs, they probably could still try in 2016 OG..
Yu Yang will be retired due to dissapointment over this fiasco ??? That's real shame...at least she can do more in Rio.....
You might as well take basketball, gym, diving, fencing, weightlifting....leave summer olympics with only outdoor sports.
Poor players... it's not their fault entirely. They are just products of a system. I think the coaches and other advisors should take the blame because they are the people who introduce the players into the system. The coach should resign, not the player.
That's so embarassed for badminton. They have the chance to promote this sport at the olympic game and what they did. they show the shadow side from badminton. That's the negativ side, when you play for a country. If you play for you like in tennis(you may have a personal coach or a personal staff), you have one rule and it's: Fight to win.
why not anyway blame the rules created by olympic committee? that was a stupid rules anyway, where everyone knows who they are going to face after 4 matches ahead! better have knockout system!
And now the controversies has became a laughing stock [video=youtube;2Gm80vDa1C4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gm80vDa1C4&sns=fb[/video]
Perhaps those who argue that other sports also do the same "strategy", there are sports which dont. This has been posted before in other match-fixing/throwing games discussions : http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport.../story-e6frep5o-1225818314885?from=public_rss http://www.thestar.com/sports/article/749523--egad-sir-scandal-rocks-lawn-bowling Lawn bowling : New Zealand was found guilty of deliberately losing to Thailand for better draw the next round. The captain was banned for 6 months, other team members I think less, forgot the no of months. As for proof, the association decided the multiple champion couldnt be missing the target by so much, so many times. Funniest thing, the complaint was made by Canada. And yeah, they called it match fixing. Due to the strictness of the Lawn Bowling Association, a Msian player claimed she was ordered to throw a match/to lose or be booted out of the national team. She refused, won the match, got booted out of the team, made her complaint along with a few other team mates. She was later reinstated to the team One of the things she said was if she threw the match & anyone lodge a complaint she will face banning/suspension, reputation tarnished like the NZ case.
