This is one of the strangest stories ever. Eight athletes booted from the Olympics for losing on purpose.
The athletes were accused of playing to lose in order to face easier opponents in future matches, drawing boos from spectators and warnings from match officials Tuesday night. The other doubles pairs booted out were from South Korea and Indonesia.
Sebastian Coe on badminton and swimmingAll four duos were charged by the federation with not doing their best to win a match and abusing or demeaning the sport.
Badminton players booted from GamesWhile the Indonesian and South Korean pairs both appealed the decision, the Chinese sporting authorities accepted the ruling and the head badminton coach apologized for the players’ behavior.
In all fairness to the athletes, hadn’t they already given up trying to be winners when the took up badminton?
Poor sportsmanship is poor sportsmanship, no matter how poor your sport.
On the upside, the 16yr old phenom Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen took over for the disgraced Chinese badminton team and won 7 gold medals even though she had never played the sport before.
