Well, this came as a bit of a surprise! Wonder which events she's playing and who she's partnering? Nathan and Gail together again would be great [TABLE="class: tweet, width: 0"] [TR="class: tweet-header"] [TD="class: user-info"]BADMlNTON Europe @EuropeBEC[/TD] [TD="class: timestamp, align: right"][/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: tweet-container"] [TD="class: tweet-content, colspan: 2"]Former world champion Gail Emms will take part in this year's English National Championships. Welcome back on court, Gail! @gailemms [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]
English #1 WD pair Gabby Adcock and Lauren Smith announce they are ending their partnership. Unsure what the new pairings will be.
i'm surprised that adcock team lost to Vladimir Ivanov/Ekaterina Bolotova in European Mixed Team Championships
Gail Emms: Olympic badminton medallist on the struggles of life after retirement Excerpts: "I don't know who I am. I can't call myself Gail Emms, Olympic badminton player any more." Emms had a successful career in badminton, with an Olympic medal the pinnacle, along with World Championship mixed doubles gold in 2006 and two Commonwealth golds. However, nine years since she retired, Emms has been surprised and dismayed by the difficulties of finding a job - and, as a mum of two sons, it has affected her family life. "All these things that I want to do with them and I can't. It makes me feel like s**t - even more s**t than normal," she said. "My son, his best mate has gone to Tenerife for two weeks in the school holidays. I'm like ,'Yeah, we'll put a tent in the back garden, that's our holiday.' That's the most we can do. "School holidays, I can't send them on football camps. They ask me if we can go to the cinema and you're sitting there thinking, 'Oh no, that's £20.' Or, 'Let's go to London today,' and I say, 'No, because we can't afford the train fares right now.' http://www.bbc.com/sport/badminton/40802004
Just seen it here as well yeah: http://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/olym...etiring/ar-AApi38a?li=AAmiR2Z&ocid=spartandhp But then you go and look were the father of the children is in this whole story and you stumble upon: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/olympic-hero-gail-emms-depression-5377556 To be honest she really has no one to blame but herself ... (at least the period right after retiring from active play and raking in the money as a motivational speaker and seemingly doing nothing with it but spend it all)
Considering England as one of the Developed country, what is she doing to these Olympics medallists who were retired. And also, i wanna say Badminton World federation need to increase the prize money to lower level tournaments. So that, players who prefer this sport won't suffer much in their life. Increasing the prize money itself won't do much to struggling players. Hope Government and millionaire businessmen try to help these amazing players .
it's not completely up to bwf. they may set the prize money levels, but that means the sponsors must be willing to spend that much. this is why you see tournaments like australia not being a ss next year. the australian federation may want to do it, but they can't obtain the money anymore. it's a semi-cooperative effort between bwf & the individual tournament organizers to get the money. whoever can guarantee superseries level prize money & other expenses for 4 years can get a superseries tournament. bwf gets the title sponsor for the ss/p's & bwf major events: total/met-life, then the equipment co's (yonex/li-ning/victor) contribute at varying levels, then the federations/organizers have to come up with the rest. for all lower levels (gp gold/gp/ic/is/fs) a nat'l federation (or third party tournament organizer) has to sign their own title sponsors like yonex/li-ning/victor and/or whatever other type of company they can find no matter what level of popularity we think badminton is in the world right now, it has not translated into big money. decision makers at major corporations have to love it and decide to become benefactors rich individuals who actually love it must be willing to become benefactors this is why athletes in all other major sports can make a living at their sport... through the trifecta of corporate sponsorships, rich benefactors and network television. without network television a sport cannot become a part of a national culture without corporate and big money interest television will not cover it so before all of that happens, badminton athletes have to know what they're getting into and what it means for their futures. plan accordingly.
I spoke too easy as if getting money is quite easy. In india, the 2 medallists got Crores and Crores of money . They don't need to worry about anything for at least 2 or 3 generations. But after hearing britain player's story, I thought there might be something wrong Britain government. Either that player didn't save the prize money given to her or Govt didn't announce money to medallists. Thanks @samkool for your detailed explanation. Sent from my SM-G600FY using Tapatalk
I think it's quite sad that someone who has given so much to their country end up like this. It's a bit like ex-service men who find themselves without a job or have lost their way after serving their country. More needs to be done to support these people who are left vulnerable and shouldn't be in this situation. I wonder why she hasn't gone into coaching?
who funded those bonuses: gov't, a multi-national corporation or a rich individual? that depends entirely on the annual cost of their lifestyle and their financial discipline & aptitude. what good is $10,000,000 if you spend $1,000,000 per year to maintain your 'happiness'...? the answer to that ?'n depends on the nat'l federation you play for. systems range from salary + expenses paid + % of prize money all the way down to self-funded player keeping 100% of prize money won. i know badminton england would have been paying her a salary, paying her expenses and taking a % of her prize money. i don't know what % but it's nothing significant. prize money back then was waaay lower than now. a u.k. bonus for a medal (og or wc) isn't enough to do anything with. a badminton athlete has to prepare for a career shift. how many past greats, anywhere in the world, are living off of their badminton winnings/sponsor deals/etc.? that is a near perfect analogy! that falls back onto the federations. an athlete is an employee of your federation so there should be a pension plan, like a typical business entity. however, i don't see that becoming standard operating procedure in my lifetime. relatively speaking there's no money in badminton. she may not have wanted to coach. badminton england was not run fairly. there were 'power' circles and a lot of backstabbing. a money grab at the millions of sterling the gov't gave them every year. if she wasn't part of the 'in' crowd there would've been no opportunity to coach. the best system now belongs to japan. as an adult you tryout for a corporate team (ntt, tonami, unisys, etc.). if you make it you are a typical salaried employee, guaranteed a job after you stop playing. naturally the goal is to make the nat'l team. your salary & tournament expenses are covered by your employer & nba. i don't know what the money split from prize money & individual sponsor deals is but i suspect it depends on the company & employment terms. the most important thing is the job and career after you retire. can you imagine seeing this article in the future: nikkei times august 8th, 2027 chairman & ceo of unisys, ayaka takahashi, has announced the takeover of ntt, blah blah blah... ...takahashi was an olympic gold medalist in badminton, for japan, at the 2016 rio summer olympic games." india would be well served to adopt that system. companies are already handing out bonuses to successful players. if enough companies love badminton that much why not start the corporate/gov't co-opted system? the companies benefit from being associated with successful athletes, the athletes benefit from employment security, the sport benefits from having a shared financial foundation. it's a ****ing win-win-win scenario.
Anything below GP also benefits from there being entry fees to pay. (IC, IS, FS) I know because I pay them.
what is the typical entry fee for fs, is, ic? the fees would likely not cover the cost of the venue, scoring equipment, per diem for all officials, airport transportation for officials & athletes. depending on the country the venue is the biggest cost. you need 5+ full days. in the usa it can run $2,000+/day for a high school or jr. college. a university is $4,000+/day, not including the required venue staff that must be paid. the tournament organizer needs to get a free venue and court mats for it to not lose too much money.
Some people just want to get away from it. She has children. It's quite difficult to commit to coaching irregular hours after school hours.
