A top Chinese badminton star quit the sport yesterday as an Olympic match-throwing scandal met with dismay and criticism in China, Indonesia and South Korea, from where eight players were disqualified.
The Badminton World Federation’s move to eject a Chinese, an Indonesian and two South Korean duos for failing to play their best marked the first major scandal of the Games and prompted China’s Yu Yang to retire from the sport.
Sports fans and the media in all three countries expressed disappointment, with some saying it was humiliating to have their national players implicated in the scandal, while others were sympathetic to the athletes.
“Match-fixing tramples on sports ethics and shouldn’t be tolerated,” an opinion piece in China’s state-run Global Times said yesterday.
The paper was among several news outlets and many ordinary citizens from the Asian countries to suggest that the new round-robin format motivated players to lose, though most agreed that nothing excused match-throwing.
China roundly criticized the incident and, alone among the three countries, declined to appeal the decision to disqualify the athletes.
Its sports delegation urged Yu, her partner Wang Xiaoli and head badminton coach Li Yongbo to publicly apologize. State-run media also highlighted the national team’s history of “losing on purpose.”
“Chinese players failed to demonstrate the fine tradition and fighting spirit of the national team. It’s me to blame,” Xinhua news agency quoted Li as saying on Wednesday.
His apology contrasted earlier comments in April at the Asia Badminton Championships where he endorsed the strategy of holding back early in competitions to save energy for later rounds.
“This is not a question of unfairness, there are certain rules that have been set, so everyone has to play within the rules,” Li said in an April interview replayed yesterday by Beijing Television. “Of course, the foreign teams want to see our players go at it with everything they have. They want us to fight like bulls, with one dying and the other injured. Then this way they don’t need to compete.”
Shortly after her public apology, Yu announced on a Chinese microblogging site that she planned to quit the sport.
“This is my last time competing. Goodbye Badminton World Federation, goodbye my beloved badminton,” she posted. “After working hard and dealing with injuries to prepare, [you] say we’re disqualified and we’re disqualified. You have heartlessly shattered our dreams.”
Some South Korean sports fans posting their opinions also berated the false play, but blamed China as the driving force behind the match-throwing.
“Why [South] Korea and Indonesia?” said Whoohaha, among several South Koreans to blame the Chinese and cast their players as victims. “It’s all because of Chinese.”
South Korea’s Dong-A Ilbo also pointed the finger at the Chinese players, whom it said first began fixing the games, but most media and Web users expressed anger and criticized the players — Jung Kyung-eun, Kim Ha-na, Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung.
“It’s a dirty act that goes against sports and the Olympics. They don’t deserve to play sports. Everyone including the coaches should get a 10-year ban,” Shin Hyun-dong posted.
South Korea’s major newspaper, JoongAng Ilbo, said: “[South] Korean women’s badminton players have disgraced the Olympic spirit and embarrassed the country.”
Hankook Ilbo called the scandal a “ridiculous performance” and said South Korean coaches were making excuses for an “insult to sport.”
Indonesians shared the sense of shame over their players, Meiliana Jauhari and Polii Greysia.
“As a fan I am very disappointed. They showed a very bad sport spirit — it’s so sad considering they are the world-class players,” said businessman Anton, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
“They were seeking a gold medal. They did many ways to reach the target, but that was not the good way,” said Hassan Toffick, an airline instructor.
Polii apologized to fans via Twitter, but also criticized the ruling.
“Of course this decision made us feel down and feel unfair, but nevertheless we fought a good fight,” Polii said.
Susi Susanti, the 1992 Olympics badminton gold medalist, shared her concerns, but also blamed the new competition system.
“I’m very concerned with what happened, but I also regret the BWF’s decision that applied for the first time a competition system which gives a player a chance to lose a game in order to avoid certain opponents in the following match,” she said on radio station ElShinta.
Meanwhile, back in London yesterday, Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark defeated and eliminated Fang Chieh-min and Lee Sheng-mu 21-16, 21-18 in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles, before Wang Yihan of China defeated and eliminated Cheng Shao-chieh 21-14, 21-11 in the women’s singles quarter-finals.
Additional reporting by Staff writer
Taiwanese athletes in action
Thursday, AUG. 2
Archery
Women’s individual
Pia Lionetti of Italy defeated and eliminated Tan Ya-ting 6-2 in the 1/8 eliminations.
Badminton
Women’s doubles quarter-final
Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei of China defeated and eliminated Cheng Wen-hsing and Chien Yu-chin 21-10, 21-14.
Men’s doubles quarter-final
Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark defeated and eliminated Fang Chieh-min and Lee Sheng-mu 21-16, 21-18.
Women’s singles quarter-final
Wang Yihan of China defeated and eliminated Cheng Shao-chieh 21-14, 21-11.
Table Tennis
Men’s singles semi-final
Wang Hao of China defeated Chuang Chih-yuan 4-1. Chuang plays in the bronze medal match.
Tennis
Women’s doubles second round
Chuang Chia-jung and Hsieh Su-wei defeated Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 6-4.
Women’s doubles quarter-final
Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic defeated and eliminated Chuang Chia-jung and Hsieh Su-wei 6-3, 6-4.
Weightlifting
Women’s under-69kg
Huang Shih-hsu finished 7th of 15 after lifting 110kg in the snatch and 131kg in the clean and jerk.
Taiwanese athletes in action
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