..somewhat alluded about this scenario in another thread, that this yr's OG has left somekind of a lingering effect to the subsequent tourneys. Partly, it's the timing issue. Not only are we missing CHN's top players, but also those from KOR and DEN.
I don't recall how long did the residual OG effect take place after the 2004 OG (Athens). I know i was a pure BC newbie in 2004, so any BCer, in that era, still remembers?
I don't think I had joined BC yet then either. I can tell you, though, that according to
BC, there were 3 European tournaments a month after the Olympics and that no Koreans played in any of them. Also, the schedule wasn't as packed back then. I think there were only seven 5 or 6 star tournaments that year and one, the HK Open, was cancelled. Remember that in 2004, the French and Swiss were much smaller and there was no China Masters and the Malaysian and All England were offering less than 5* prize money. That made it easy to pack more high-level tournaments into the last two months so there were four 5,6* events in November and December and although the HK Open was cancelled, the China, Singapore and Indonesia Opens were fairly well attended and we saw the new partnerships especially in XD like Nova/Lilyana, Xie/Zhang, and Lee/Lee and WD like Lee/Lee. Some new pairs had come in brand new right after the Olympics, of course. Bach/Gunawan, for example, were in the US Open and the 3 European tournaments starting in September and Xie/Zhang debuted in Denmark in October. We've seen that kind of thing this year, too, with the new Chinese entries playing in Japan,CM, and Macau.
Still, none of Korea's top singles players - Jun Jae Youn, Lee Hyun Il, or Shon Seung Mo - played internationally again until 2005.
I don't remember that many retirements, though, other than the obvious five Koreans (Kim,Ra,Lee,Yoo and Kim Yong-hyun with Ha Tae Kwun coming a little later) and Thailand's Teerawiwatana, whose departure left Tisana without a partner. Xia Xuanze had already been left off the Olympic team and Zhou Mi's hiatus had not yet begun as she played in the China Open in November.
, eh??..
Hope they can advance at least QF.
what have we done? hahaha. 
