I can probably summarize the whole 1st game in a few short sentences. KOR serves to start the game, CHN hits into the net on returns, KOR serves into the net, CHN does the same, KOR gets service faulted, umpire calls them over, both sides serve into the net/serve out, referee comes on, they start to play a bit. KOR wins 1st game 21-14. Something like that
It wasn't good! A disgrace to any sport, let alone Olympics. Really horrible acting, about 20 missed serves alone. I was five feet away.
This group system is retarded from the start , and many people have predicted this would happen. It is not in the spirit of the game , but every team would do the same if they have the chance .....(planning ahead .,,,,lol)......I dont blame either team , apologies to the people who paid to watch the sessions but they have another 2 courts to feast their eyes on. This system would not work in bigger tournament even if they start at the same time , unlike football fair play .......it definitely inspire the next generation about team work
Occasions like this are going to really hurt badminton potentially, as a sport it gets hardly any coverage in this country the only time is the Olympics and this is now the major story. The IOC put badminton as a potential sport to drop out of the olympics in the future and be replaced this situation will now be used be ammunition for those with that viewpoint. It has already been noted in an IOC report the domination of the sport by a few nations which harms international competition today has just helped prove this. In a personal note i'm angry for the individuals some of whom have paid large sums to be at the games and buy tickets. In addition many of the crowd due to the ticket allocation have little or no knowledge of badminton what kind of image does this give the average individual of our sport which we love? - Pathetic Lastly several of my family and friends are volunteers at the games and have taken over a week unpaid off work to help run this event as organizers running the training facilities, athlete helpers making sure these players have everything they would want, and general fan helpers, what a lovely slap in the face this is to us all. Team china you are the most demanding and distant team in this games behind the scenes, all of us welcomed you wholeheartedly to the UK and they never even give a smile
First, blame it on the group system. Second, it happened not only in badminton. In soccer, it also happened before. Group system and both teams does not want to win. Why people still follow soccer, I am not sure. I remember at least once, during Sea Games soccer. I would like to see punishment for not trying but when the outcome did not matter as both will go to the next round, it is difficult to force them to try. As for whether I would continue supporting any of the WD involved, I would say that I would not support them but I think 99% of all players would do likewise.
Now, John McEnore and Micheal Johnson got on the wagon as well (on BBC). to bring back the old system they demanded!
Elimination format would prompt all players to do their best in every round. With the group system, I guess what BWF and the Olympics is trying to do is give hope to the lesser known countries in badminton and promote the sport in those areas. It at least gives them some hope, but for the strong-nations who couldn't careless would of course use dirty-tactics to get what they want. China has done this many times, but what can one do? You can penalise them once, twice, but in the end they won't change.
"In the name of all the competitors I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, committing ourselves to a sport without doping and without drugs, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams" Kick out for breaking the oath ?
But I still don't see tactically-wise why they would China deliberately lose WXL / YY and also TQ / ZYL I mean, they'll just end up in the same place and will have to verse even tougher opponents if they lose...... there's no point doing it, and they're fit highly trained athletes, so why wouldn't they try?
I was there, and it was a total joke. Absolutely no question they were both trying to lose in the China v Korea match, just that the Chinese were 'better' at losing so got the result they wanted. Tough call for Torsten Berg, but he should have disqualified one of the pairs there and then. It sort of invited it to happen again in the second doubles match. Total waste of people's time and money.
That's the blind spot of the game format! If round robin allow only one team for one country that may work. Unfortunately, there are vary of entry. Some countries where could qualify more than one team to the game. So strategy may be played on every match. Also, only strong team could play strategy. They can control win or lose to place on advantage position. Weak team cannot. Sigh!
I don't think TQ/ZYL lost on purpose, but WXL/YY probably did. Still, here's what I think about the whole affair:
Watching bbc olympic sportsday programme, the guy on the show claimed that todays behaviour it must "be an oriental thing it means so much to them over their so i'm not surprised"
Glory of the sport? Other countries have already sent players home for actions in contrdiction to the Olympic spirit (Greece an athletics european champion, Switzerland a football player today I just read) TQ/ZYL didn't lose on purpose and because of that "measures" had to be taken so they wouldn't meet before the final ...
hats off to your family members who make sacrifice in order to help out the game organization. i hope in general they will still enjoy the experience.
exactly why a lot of people are speculating that the Chinese were throwing the game, which they have done before.
"Glory of the sport?" By who's definition, by what criteria, what does that even mean, beside being abstract? You could charge BWF and IOC for violating this because they failed to take into account what might happen with the group draw system. I not defending what the player did, but saying they violated "Glory of the sport" I hope is not used as a justification for DQ because the term is too vague.