Yeah! Keep up with the good record MAS!!!! Along with Canada, Cuba, Iceland, and Zimbabwe. May our record will last another one hundred years. boleh!!!!
Hey, Canada has what it takes to fix matches, too.. you know... it just that we don't do it in a tournament's semi-finals or finals. We proud Canadians do it during the qualifying matches!
What's with the Olympic spirit talk? Tell that to Bush, and China's leaders... they will roll on the floor laughing. It's all about the score board to them. To people who really think Olympic is only a sport event, I really feel for them... to those big powerhouse countries such as U.S, China, Germany, Russia, and etc.. the Olympics is just a war not using any weapons, but with a ball, shuttlecock, or whatever else.
I caught a bit of cycling the other day, and apparently it's common practice for one nation's team to shut out the rest of the field and have their main man or whatever finish first. The commentators called that great sportsmanship. Cycling is a team sport you say? Fair enough. I also watched Michael Phelps in some swimming event yesterday where the commentators stated that he essentially gifted one of his teammates a gold medal, and what did they call it? Great sportsmanship And I believe swimming is a pretty individual sport. I'm not really going to put in my own .02 about this but I figured there's some food for thought for you guys.
I just saw the CJ & LD match on the BBC. The commentators were appalled by the match and said that: 1) it was against the rules; 2) this was a showcase for the world to show millions of new people what a great sport badminton truly is, but on the evidence of this match, people will think it's a complete joke; 3) this sort of practice puts badminton's Olympic status in jeopardy, and if badminton was dropped from the Olympics, it would be disaster for its goal to become a globally popular sport. I understand why LYB does it, but I don't agree that it's acceptable. That example of the rich man spending a $1 million is just silly. The point isn't that he has a $1 million to spend, it's that he's spending it illegally. If he spent the money on say, slave labour, he couldn't defend himself by saying "You're just jealous because YOU don't have a $1 million to spend". I would have no problem with LYB telling his players to give others easy matches if that was allowed in the rules, but as I understand it, it isn't. There's a rule which says players have to try their best to win. If LYB has a problem with the rule, the Chinese Bad. Assoc. should try to change the rule, rather than flouting it. As for the examples of cyclists and Phelps, I don't think they broke any rules, and more importantly, they sacrificed their own ambitions to allow a teammate to win. If LD and CJ had met in the final, and CJ decided to give LD a walkover, that would be different because the only person who loses out would be CJ. It doesn't adversely affect anyone else.
u got some good points there except for the cycling and swimming cases which u find it's ok. Yes, they didnt break the rules but the bigger picture is that this fixing rule is not consistent among all the sports. If those sports are olympic sports, they should have similar rule on 'helping your team mates'. You just can't have it's ok fixing here but not over there. The best solution is to have fair AND consistent fixing rule across all individual sports and enforce it. Don't have wishy washy rule and make sport fans go crazy over this greyish game fixing practice.
The bottom line- the China players want China to do well- sure they want themselves to do well too- but they always want china overall to do better. Everyone knows that LD has WAAAAAY more a chance of winning the gold FOR CHINA, so what CJ did was help his team win gold. I would see no problem with that if it were not against the rules. However, there is one thing I must point out. A player plays a semi before a final (duh) when one player lets another win, then said winning player is fresher and fitter for the final. That is not fair, and therefore shouldnt be happening. Players (unless seeded) play the same number of matches, usually on the same day, have the same amount of rest before playing each other etc- when a fluff happens- one player has an advantage- and i think its extremely unfair. I dont comdenm CJ or anyone else for sacrificing personal glory for country and team glory, but the fact remains that this makes things unfair for the player left for the winner to face.
Everyone knows LD is much better than CJ. So LD's win should not be a surprise. Should CJ exhaust himself and LD and still lose just to make the next opponent feel fair? That could cost LD's gold medal and his own bronze medal. This is not fix. It is a right stragety for CJ.
Actually, I didnt think about that. If he truely believed he couldn't beat Dan, he was thinking about the bronze match, and thought it stupid to waste the energy. It's like playing v someone, and losing 0-20 first game- are you really gonna put in all that effort to try and win? You know your arnt gonna do it, and instead should let the opponant take it- then put in the work for the second and (possibly) 3rd game. You should hand them that game to save energy for the next. I suppose thats all CJ was doing.
I am watching the replay and started laughing at the second point. Both players were hitting back-and-forth like a practice. Neither willing to put much energy into winning the point. Frankly, CJ needs better acting lesson. Wouldn't you guy say in 2008 AE, LD's injury was much better?
hey match fixing can nvr happen in any sports. did u see match football match fixiing in italy. they make fines and suspension to players. I think BWF shld have some plan to see this match fixing in serious matter. Maybe ban players for 3-6months from getting into tournament.
BWF will need to grow a pair before that happens cause they would have to punish the largest team and arguably most powerful team in the game.
Obviously, LD has bigger chance to challenge LCW. There's still London Games for CJ when he will turn 26 at that time.
With 1-day gap between semi and final, this is still OK for me. Unlike Olympics, it was really unfair for what happened in the open tournaments.
Considering how much harder LCW had to work for his win and how much LD got to rest, it will be quite a story if LCW beats LD. At least Malaysia did a good job by motivating the gold medal winner with RM1,000,000 . Hopefully that will be enough to give LCW the win.
Regarding being against the rules, it is technically correct, but impossible to prove. The rule in Badminton I believe is not putting full and proper effort in. Like zheng-bo-rox says if someone is 13-20 down, they often don't put full and proper effort in, so are we going to punish all these players as well? The best way to avoid it in OG is to only have 1 entry per country.
as much as it is a fact that match fixing happens all the time and in all types of sport, it should be that we the fans should not condone it. winning at all cost, is that all we want now? no more sportmanship? no more trying our very best after all the sacrifice in training? no more everybody have a fair chance? to me it does not matter if you are capable or not of match fixing. it is whether you will make the decision to fix the match if and when you have the opportunity. being capable or not should not be the main issue but the ultimate decision to do it should be. if malaysia have the opportunity to do that and they decide to do it, i will still be disappointed and will feel that the win is not fully deserved. as a fan, that is what i feel. i guess some fans just want the win. i think i agree with james that maybe only one representative per country might prevent match fixing but that might deny the good players from one country to see if they can make it as champions. si have no problem with china having three representative because frankly these are very good players. they have trained hard to get where they are. they make the game enjoyable when they play to their fullest potential. i just hope that all the players are given a fair chance. to do their best. to see if all the sacrifice and hard work will pay off. to see if they can achieve their dream. but i guess, winning is far more important. like the american basketball team who refused to stay in the athletes village and said they are not there to mingle and make friends, they are only there to win. is that what sports is to you? it is not to me and i hope it will never be to a majority of people in this world.
