Haven’t said much about the Olympics, although I have been watching almost four hours a day since that horrible opening ceremony. Like NBC, I have been appropriately jingoistic in cheering on American athletes while pretty much ignoring anyone else.
That changed yesterday with the Great Badminton Scandal, and I’ve been reading as much about it as I can find.
In case you missed it, eight of the world’s top women’s doubles players – one team each from China and Indonesia, and two teams from South Korea – were disqualified for tanking their matches.
The women involved have had their Olympic credentials revoked and are being evicted from the Olympic Village. One of them, Yu Yang of China, who is considered to be the best birdie basher in the world, has announced her retirement.
Today, the International Olympic Committee is asking the Chinese, South Korean and Indonesian national Olympic committees to investigate the coaches of the badminton players who were disqualified for trying to lose matches. IOC spokesman Mark Adams says “We have asked the NOCs to look into the entourage issue” to determine whether team coaches, trainers or officials should also be punished.
This all started when a Chinese team attempted to lose to a South Korean pair. A win would have pitted the Chinese against the other Chinese team in the elimination round, but a loss would have put them in position to win their bracket and play in the final – lose and play for Gold or Silver, win and the best the second place Chinese team could hope for was Bronze. It was the sort of strategic move that is rumored to happen often in sports with playoffs.
The Koreans were having no part of it, and in a second match, against Indonesia, the other Korean team tried to do the same thing.
The problem was that it was just so damn blatant. The best players in the world looked like they had never held a racquet before, and stumbled around the court to the boos of the fans. You can see how bad it was Here.
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