Something needs to change about the qualification for badminton in Olympics when Hans Kristin-Vittinghus, ranked 12th in the world, winner of the Australia SS, and who helped Denmark achieve history by winning Denmark's first ever Thomas Cup, is absent from the Olympics. Hans Kristin-Vittinghus has already acknowledged he probably won't be able to play at the Olympics: https://twitter.com/hkvittinghus/status/725238124264194053 I understand that BWF and the Olympic committee want more countries at the Olympics to participate in badminton, even if the players from these countries are not competitive. But they need to make a good balance between ensuring the top players are at the Olympics versus allowing countries in where the players are not competitive. For example, looking at the qualification so far for Men's singles at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badminton_at_the_2016_Summer_Olympics_–_Qualification, Jaspar Yu Woon, ranked 406 in the world for Brunei, has qualified for the Olympics but Hans Kristin-Vittinghus has not. No disrespect to Jaspar Yu Woon, I'm sure he has worked hard at his game in Brunei to get to where he is. But Jaspar Yu Woon is not more deserving than Hans Kristin-Vittinghus to play at the Olympics if we base it on accomplishments in badminton alone for the year 2015-2016. I think BWF and the Olympic committee need to look at changing the qualification process. A top 20 player (or top 20 pair in doubles or mixed) should get automatic qualification at the Olympics. Any SS winner during the Olympic qualification period from 2015-2016 should get automatic qualification as well (yes, even if countries like China do "walkovers" in the final like Lin Dan vs Chen Jin, that's fine because it's not easy for Chen Jin to reach a SS final anyways - BWF can also do a 3rd party medical exam on the player giving the walkover if the finals has players from the same country and one player withdraws). Then the remaining spots can be allocated accordingly, allowing for some countries with non-competitive players to play at the Olympics, so that more countries can participate at the Olympics in badminton. Minimally, BWF and the Olympic committee need to change the rule about only allowing the top 2 players only to participate at the Olympics, for highly ranked players. At least change it to top 3 players if a country has 3 players in the top 20 ranking. It's simply unfair to players like Hans Kristin-Vittinghus if they cannot play at the Olympics.
well, if the ranked 6th player, Tian Houwei of China can't go there isn't much case for the no 12th, is it? in fact, there are more top 10 players that couldn't go. read on if interested, http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/index.php?threads/too-good-for-rio-2016.163844/
So now countries/MAs/NOCs other than CHN are feeling the pain. When CHN is the only one targeted, the rest just keep quiet, some openly gleefully about it, some silently gloating over it. The moral of the story is whenever you see somebody unfairly treated, don't just fold your arms as if it has nothing to do with you and remain quiet, speak out against it, for it might be your turn one day to be hurt.
Obviously, Wang Shixian is the worst victim, can we say she only has herself to blame? First in 2012 when she was ranked 3rd (!) but dropped in favour of the erstwhile 4th ranked Li Xuerui owing to the then BWF ruling of three qualifiers if ranked in the top 4, and now , 2016, 'failing' to qualify due to the even more stringent ruling of maximum two per NOC if ranked in the top 16 for WS - a double whammy for her. Incidentally, CHN this time have 5 players in the top 16, namely, Li Xuerui, Wang Yihan, Wang Shixian, Sun Yu , and He Bingjiao ! http://bwfbadminton.com/rankings/26...-s-singles/2016/18?rows_per_page=25&page_no=1 Wonder how He Bingjiao felt, if she were a JPN player she would have a realistic chance of going to Rio vying with Akane Yamaguchi by playing in as many tournaments as her. All that is now just water under the bridge.
I'm not sure that if it's about targeting China; Obviously China thought that way since she thought that she is the strongest badminton nation. In case you wonder, neither Olympic Games nor World Championships are strictly elite tournaments; hence talking about winning medals from both tournaments as winning in the tournament of highest level of competition makes no sense. You need to look at how Olympic Games come to be before commenting on the fairness. When you are talking about elite tournaments, that should be purely based upon world ranking. Yes, then we are talking about Superseries in badminton or Grand Slam in tennis. OG needs to have top players from most NOCs. On the other hand, Superseries have players based upon World Ranking regardless of nationality. This is not restricted in Badminton. Just look at how players qualify for OG in tennis and other sports.
I thought technically they did qualify. It's just up to the country to decide who to send Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
IMO, I think it's the best case scenario if badminton wants to be as popular as tennis. More than 2 players from the same country qualified to the Olympics will increase the chance of all medals sweeping, especially with China, who was able to sweep all three medals in Sydney 2000.
That's why I used inverted commas on the word 'failing' - all three WS from CHN technically qualified though on the BWF R2R Ranking the third highest ranking CHN WS is left out, so in effect she is as good as not qualified due to the new ruling quota. What difference does it make when only two out of the three qualified can go ? Just put yourself in the shoes of the unlucky one.
Well if WSX can't go for second consecutive time, even after winning Lot's of title and a serious Gold contender I believe HKV can hardly complain, atleast he will visit Rio and do the Danish commentary. I am not sure if WSX can do that either
There you go again. There are 5 PSS and 7 SS but only 1 WC and 1 OG. The latter two events, esp the Olympics are every athletes' dream, the most prestigious, most coveted, most sought-after, and ranked and rated higher in all measures than any of the 12 annual PSS/SS. There's a compelling reason why both the WC and the OG have to be as representative and inclusive as possible, the more so for the quadrennial OG where competitors from all regions and continents, including those who would otherwise never have a chance to participate are given an opportunity to do so, hence wildcards and special clauses are instituted to accommodate them. Just this point alone is enough, I don't wish to go through the whole hog with you all over again. Suffice to say, if LCW thinks like you, he would never be so dejected, devastated every time he lost to Lin Dan or Chen Long at the two majors and until today still refuses to give up trying.
Oh , I forgot to add, thljcl, you contradict yourself, if that's not targeting CHN , what is ? Which other nation has won a clean sweep of the golds, including some of the silvers. In other words, what you say flies in the face of reality. I'm not even talking about table tennis where CHN actually made a clean sweep of all the medals on offer at Beijing 2008, scooping gold,silver and bronze in both the men's and women's singles events.
We all know that Olympic comes every 4 years, and in that 4 years we could have 5x48 PSS/SS winners and 5x208 ranked No 1. I'm no mathematician but hell do I know that which is more important and that everyone wanted. Apart from being the Olympic/World champion you also has your national flag raised and nation nathem performed in your honour.
The point he was trying to make - I believe - is that the competition in SS/SSP tournaments is tougher due to the lack of the abovementioned rules. While it's true that every players dream is to win the Olympics and WC, it doesn't mean that the players they'll meet on their way are better players than at SS/SSP level, rather weaker.
that rule is mean to protect badminton spot in olympic.. if this rule doesnt exist, and china do clean sweep again this year, i'm not really sure badminton will be included on 2020 olympic..
are you suggesting to lower the standard (by restricting the top players) to make badminton more acceptable to the mass?
I understand and would've agreed with your reaction just based on that one post of his alone but if you've been following his numerous posts elsewhere, that's only a small part of his overall scheme of things which explains why I responded the way I did in a preemptive manner.
That's exactly my point. The reason Tennis is popular is not due to Olympic Games. Rather, it's due to high level of promotion as well as commercialization. The situation is exactly opposite when it comes to badminton. It's not secret that badminton players earn much less compared with tennis players. Yes, LCW earned a lot due to sponsorship. That's because he has been dominating the world circuit for a long time. Can't see how other players make money if they just earn prize money. In fact, most of them rely on salary paid by their own country. Badminton does need to stay in Olympic Games to have more promotion and TV coverage. Tennis/Soccer/etc. has no such need. http://system.bwfbadminton.com/documents/folder_1_81/folder_1_82/folder_1_93/BWF Strategic Plan 2016-2020.pdf But when it comes to resources devoted to promotion, at least biggest amount resources will be put on both Level 1 (WC/OG/TC) and Level 2 (SS). Let's just see how successful can the commercialization of SS can go.
In fact, ITF, ATP, or WTA once did not want their sport in Olympic Games because they did not want their sport being controlled by the other organization. As strange as it may sound, even though tennis is currently in Olympic Games; it's so prestigious that many players think that it's important than Grand Slam, ATP or WTA did give fewer ranking points to Olympic Games due to its nature. It's certainly not the competition of highest level.
The same can be said about Olympic Games or even World Championships; even though as an individual tournament it does give higher ranking point compared with SSP, but there are five SSP, one SSF, and seven further SS, in practice, 13 SS in a single calendar years matter more when it come to world ranking because it only counts 10 highest ranking points. The difference between the ranking points offered by WC/OG and SSP is too little to matter in World Ranking. A typical example would be Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takashi who lost in the second round in World Championships 2015 are the current World NO 1. In fact, LCW did not make it to the final of WC until the year of 2011 despite having been World NO 1 for more than a year that time.
