10 replies to this topic

[SnideAsides]

Starting the thread because the discussion's going on all over the place. (And... seriously? BADMINTON?)

[wallybear]

This (as well as doping) absolutely disgusts me. The Olympics is supposed to be about sports competition at its best- & that certainly includeds sportsmanship. To purposefully lose- what a definition of poor sportmanship. These teams disgust me. I'd rather watch some unknown team from a tiny country place fourth & be thrilled in an event than watch some country whose only objective is to win at any/all costs. IMO they should've disqualified all of the badminton teams from all countries involved to really make it clear this is heinous.

[pennben]

I don't equate this to doping. This was about trying to manipulate pool play before one and out rounds. The structure of the tournament caused the problem....along with very poor actors.

[sienna gold]

WallyBear I am with you.

I came home and all I hear is how China, SK and another team totally buggered things up. And considering that there are rumblings how this could hurt Badminton being in the Olympics after this. There are a lot of events where you have to do round robin play and as I know, I doubt have athletes trying to flub it up.

A bright spot out of all of this is that Canada benefited, and has a chance for a medal. :)

[blackburn]

Yeah I don't blame the players. They were probably encouraged by their coach/management to lose the match. It's the format of the game which should change. Why should it benefit them to lose? I thought the verdict was pretty harsh though, but at least it makes a statement to all the other players not to encourage this style of play. Apparently one of the Chinese players is retiring after this debacle. Coupled with China's statement that they don't condone this kind of behavior and won't appeal to reinstate the players, am wondering how much of a choice she had in her retirement.

[pennben]

There are tons of Olympic and other sports where folks try to manipulate pool play. See, for instance, Japan, the reigning world champions of women's soccer, who chose not to win the last round of pool play just a day ago.

The outrage here is only because the players did it so poorly. And that it is badminton.

[tip and fall]

IMO they should've disqualified all of the badminton teams from all countries involved to really make it clear this is heinous.

What sense would that make? The men's teams had nothing to do with this. It seems like this was a spur-of-the-moment thing that happened when the #2 Chinese team ended up losing.

There are a lot of events where you have to do round robin play and as I know, I doubt have athletes trying to flub it up.

I disagree, I'll eat my hat if it turns out that this doesn't happen on some sort of regular basis. Hell, the Japanese soccer team flat-out admitted that they were trying to manipulate their standings in the group stage by intentionally playing to a draw (instead of trying to win). They wanted to come in second place so that they could have an easier quarterfinal berth, same as the badminton teams here. I'm not saying it's okay, and IMO elite athletes shouldn't be afraid of taking on the best, but I also think that's a bit of an overly idealistic POV. The world isn't made up of Cedric Diggorys here.

The difference is that most other teams are usually more competent at this sort of manipulation, and it's really hard to prove. I think the only reason why the committee acted here was because it was so egregious and blatant that a blind man could see what they were doing. Plus, the Korean coach was an idiot and explicitly admitted that that was what they were doing.

The penalty might have been harsh, but the teams involved were such idiots that a part of me says that they deserved to be kicked out for being so hilariously inept at trying to game the system, heh.

ETA: I feel for the spectators, though, I'd be pissed as hell if I had plunked down that money and had been treated to... that.

Edited by tip and fall, Aug 2, 2012 @ 8:30 AM.

[bulldawgtownie]

The Olympics is supposed to be about sports competition at its best- & that certainly includeds sportsmanship. To purposefully lose- what a definition of poor sportmanship.

Some would say poor sportsmanship and some would say good strategy. As another poster pointed out the problem is the format and that a team gains an advantage by losing in pool play. And as others have said in some many sports througout the years a team has loss on purpose, or at the very least not given their all, in order to gain an advantage.

Edited by bulldawgtownie, Aug 2, 2012 @ 8:58 AM.

[Rickster]

This was apparently the first Olympics in which they tried round robin competition and it's also not traditionally used in regular tournaments. So it was not thought through and badly designed.

Another example of trying to avoid throwing matches was the recent Euro soccer tournament, in which the last matches in pool play start at precisely the same time, down to the minute, to avoid teams throwing games in order for a better position in the knock out rounds. So it's certainly not unknown in other sports.

If I'm not mistaken, the other problem here was that it seemed that you had two teams playing each other both trying to throw the match, which turned it into a farce.

Edited by Rickster, Aug 2, 2012 @ 9:25 AM.

[bulldawgtownie]

If I'm not mistaken, the other problem here was that it seemed that you had two teams playing each other both trying to throw the match, which turned it into a farce

Yeah, according to ESPN the South Korea coach said once they figured out China was doing it they decided to do it too and from what I've heard the result was players were intentionally hitting the shuttlecock into the net as well as intentionally hitting it out of bounds. It was so obvious both teams were tanking the crowd booed.

[Quilt Fairy]

But in a sense, South Korea got what they wanted. They said China has been doing this for a long time now and no one paid any attention. They'll pay attention now.