I have no problem with throwing the games. Strategy is strategy.
They found a loophole to better their overall chances and exploited it. They are being penalized for a shoddy system and/or poor acting.
is there a rule that says "YOU HAVE TO TRY YOUR HARDEST!!! (though we will judge how hard you are actually trying)"
What if they just decided to get "hurt" on the 1st serve and couldn't finish the match
works for me.
guess you missed the part where i was listening to sports talk radio.
and when the guys who are running the show talk anything about the olympics, they always mention they are going to talk about it before they do talk about it, so you can change the station if you don't want to hear it.
i would expect that on the same station, when they are going to discuss the olympics, even in the updates, they would do the same thing.
i also like how you totally avoided 2/3 of my post in your tough guy response.
Exactly, it's losing a battle to try to win the war. What about when a runner runs slower on the first lap of the 1600 to conserve energy. Should he be punished for not trying his hardest?
Don't like athletes throwing games? Don't have a system that rewards them for it.
I find it hilarious the white judges are calling out the asians for cheating. We see it in american sports all the time for playoff position as well as drafting priorities.
How do you judge whether or not someone is "playing to win". If an athlete parties all night and shows up to the tournament hung over, would you say they aren't "playing to win" and DQ them for that? When an NFL team decides to rest their starters on the last regular season game after they clench a playoff spot, are they cheating? The main problem here was the organization of the tournament. Change it back to elimination and you won't need a subjective "play to win" rule.
The players deserve their ejections mainly because of the farce they put on, not because they didn't put 100% effort into all stages of the tournament.
Also, everything changes when money is involved in match fixing, which doesn't appear to be the case here.
So it's a completely subjective judging? The Chinese were saying they were conserving energy for the games the next day (knock out rounds). Again, what if one of them just pulled up lame with a hamstring pull after a point or two and "could not finish" the match. Can you say "HEY!!! You're faking it!! Get out there and play!"
Spectators booed as shuttlecocks were deliberately hit out of court, and serves dumped into the net.
Now I couldn't watch it but...
Doesn't sound like conserving energy to me. Luckily, I don't have to be the judge making the call. Luckily, you aren't either.
Any Canadians here catch the call on men's eight rowing? I got goosebumps, just legendary.
Losing is never advantageous for playoff reasons in American pro sports. In football and basketball it hurts your seed, and seeding determines home field advantage, which is huge. Could potentially make you lose a first round bye as well (essentially a free win).
They wanted to end the match so they hit it off the court.
Again, what if they said "unable to compete due to injury" and forfeited the match? What's the ruling on that?
Ah, Sections 4.5 and 4.16 of the Badminton World Federation players' code. Much like the debate over whether to use the French or English translation of U.N. Resolution 242, or the meaning of the comma in the Second Amendment of the Constitution, the nuances of these two clauses will surely be debated in the academy for years to come ... well, in badminton academies, at least.
4.5 Failure to use best efforts
Not using ones best efforts to win a match.
4.16 Unsportsmanlike conduct
Conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport
PLAYERS MAJOR OFFENCES
5.1 Conduct contrary to the integrity of the game
Engaging in conduct contrary to the integrity of the game of Badminton. If a player is convicted of serious violation of a criminal law of any country, the punishment for which includes possible imprisonment, that player may be deemed by virtue of such conviction to have engaged in conduct contrary to the integrity of the game of Badminton. In addition, if a player has at any time behaved in a manner severely damaging to the reputation of the sport, that player may be deemed by virtue of such behaviour to have engaged in conduct contrary to the integrity of the game of Badminton.
3. PLAYERS COMMITMENT AND ENTRY OFFENCES
3.1 Late withdrawal
Withdrawing from either the qualifying or main draw after publication of the draw without evidence or proof of bona fide injury, illness, bereavement or other emergency situation
3.3 Playing after declaring non-availability due to injury
Withdrawing from a future tournament due to injury or illness and playing in any Badminton tournament during the period between the date of notification of injury/illness and the said tournament from which the player has withdrawn.
Emms said that the potential for spot-fixing was raised in a manager's meeting on Monday but that the referee had dismissed their concerns. "All the managers got together with the referee and said, 'look, this has happened; in Group D you will find some very dodgy matches going on in the evening because of it' and the referee laughed and said 'oh don't be silly'," she said. "And the managers said 'we know the game, we know the players and we know the teams and we know this is going to happen."
She added: "Badminton, in the Olympics and in all tournaments across the circuit, it's never played in a group stage, it's always a straight knockout system and for some reason they decided that the Olympic Games in 2012 should be this group stages.
"And as soon as heard that I went 'it's going to bring up match fixing', that was my first thought, and lo and behold last night that is exactly what happened."
According to a British ex-badminton player, the guys organising the thing were told that this was almost certain to occur due to the way the brackets/competition was organised.
They said it would be fine.
If anyone deserves to be slammed, it's definitely the people who organised such a mess of a tournament, and continued with their crappy system AFTER being told it would go wrong.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/aug/01/olympic-badminton-players-charged
It's unfortunate that so much attention is being paid to the players, when the people organising thing thing should be thrown out as well for knowingly using a bad system and bring the sport into disrepute through their own actions. They are just as much to blame as the players.
the 3 articles i read on it all said that it was the fault of how it was designed. That they should have NEVER went from the elimination method.
I don't think those rules address in-game injuries though. They only mention withdrawing after publication.
So lets say the Chinese come in and play a solid 5 or 6 points... maybe even more. Then WHAMMO! an "injury" hits. Lets just say it's severe cramping in a leg or something. But so bad they can't go on for that match. So they forfeit and therefore lose. What's the ruling there?
Same.
But the players played in poor spirit!!! DAMN THEM!!!
don't get me wrong. the players DESERVED to be booted.
Couldn't find shit on the regulations, spent too much time on it. I'll let the news reporters do their thing.
btw "Greatest Olympian Ever" Michael Phelps smokes weed, sup?