Olympic Badminton Controversy: 8 Women's Doubles Players Disqualified For Throwing Matches

[ButterflyBlood]

Source: Huffington Post

LONDON -- Eight female badminton doubles players were disqualified Wednesday from the London Olympics after trying to lose matches to receive a more favorable place in the tournament.

The Badminton World Federation announced its ruling after investigating two teams from South Korea and one each from China and Indonesia. It punished them for "not using one's best efforts to win a match" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport" in matches Tuesday night.

"We applaud the federation for having taken swift and decisive action," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told The Associated Press. "Such behavior is incompatible with the Olympic values."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/01/badminton-olympics-disqualified-lose-matches_n_1727640.html

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This sounds like the right decision with the description of how they played, but if it's possible to do this to your benefit then they need to seriously look at how the badminton tournament is set up as there's a serious flaw.

[KurtNYC]

1. If those badminton players had worked in corporate jobs they would know how to lose

(to the boss) without making it so obvious.

The next round should be randomly selected to avoid rewarding this type of gamesmanship.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. But these teams were playing each other

This was 4 teams in 2 matches - all wanted to lose. It's easy to lose to someone who's trying; when they're trying to lose too, it becomes an art-form demanding its own special skill.

[hobbit709]

2. I love JuanitaJean's comment.

"Well, isn’t that the whole point of badminton?

Cripes, I played badminton once and I could not lose fast enough."

[olddad56]

3. They should not be throwing matches to begin with. That is a good way to start a fire.

[rocktivity]

20. DUzy candidate!

rocktivity

[Igel]

4. The flaw is expecting a certain level of ethical achievement.

It's my kids' attitudes: Screw the law, if you can get away with it it's ethical; in fact, abiding by the law when there's no punishment is just stupid.

With the corollary that if the law's written in such a way as to make being caught possible, it's probably a badly written law.

Inference: There is no morality or ethics apart from what's imposed on you. Character is conformity enforced at law-point. Values are dictated by carefully considering immediate penalties and immediate rewards.

When somebody steals something from one of my students in class, few students say "that's wrong" or condemns the thief for an immoral act. Just, "bad for you" or "he shouldn't have done tht to you" or "why'd you leave it where they could steal it?" and justification for the thief.

Don't know if the parents screwed up or if the media re-educated them. Explains a lot, though.

[SoapBox]

5. What? And not even a positive drug test?

...well, maybe they WERE on drugs! OH, maybe they needed to be on drugs!!

[aggiesal]

6. I side with the players on this. . . .

The organizers decided to implement Pool play instead of knockout rounds.

The favorite to win the gold took 2nd place in their pool, They now have to
play the 1st place team from a different pool in the knock out round.

Because no team wants to meet the favorite, why finish 1st in your pool?
So they decided, that the best way to win a medal is to avoid playing the
favorite. Which means losing.

This strategy happens all the time in Pool Play. Soccer, Basketball, ... all
play in pool play rounds, and when they don't want to meet a favorite
in the knock out round, they play weaker players. It's just more subtle
and harder to verify. While in Badminton, there are no reserve players,
so the it becomes really obvious.

This is the organizers fault. This is what they wanted, this is what they got.

[rocktivity]

9. DING DING DING! Aggiesal, you're our grand prize winner!

Last edited Sun May 15, 2016, 11:18 PM - Edit history (5)

This is the organizers fault...(They) decided to implement Pool play instead of knockout rounds...

Because no team wants to meet the favorite...the best way to win a medal is to avoid playing the favorite...

If there's no incentive to either win OR finish first, and the problem is this widespread, you're absolutely right -- the way the tournament is set up is at fault.

When World Cup Soccer had a similar problem, they solved it by having all the finals games played simultaneously.


rocktivity

[aggiesal]

12. Woooow Thanks! ...

What do I win?
Anything cool?

[rocktivity]

19. Along with my unabashed admiration for roughly sixty minutes, you have a choice of:

[center][/center]

Unless you'd rather have something that's actually useful:

[center][/center]


rocktivity

[aggiesal]

23. LOL ...

I'll take the spork. (SPoon + fORK)
That's cool.

Although turning down any album by David Hasselhof was a tough decision.
NOT!

Enjoy the day.

[cosmicone]

7. How is this different from

football teams in the lead who run losing running plays just to burn out the clock and making it impossible for the opponents to come back?

If the strategy is available, it will be used and it is not the players' fault.

[aggiesal]

8. Agreed n/t

[rocktivity]

11. I think it's different in that the football team is trying to win a single game

versus a tournament.

But didn't we just have a Super Bowl in which the runner was ordered NOT to score in favor of kicking a field goal with no time left? He turned his back to the goal line and fell over it instead!




rocktivity

[onenote]

13. Not running up the score after you've secured victory isn't the same as intentionally losing,

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. You need to win the game AND beat the point spread before relaxing

otherwise you might be accused of fixing the outcome of bets.

[onenote]

25. Teams in all sports let up when they've got a win in the bag

and they are virtually never, ever accused of fixing the outcome.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

16. Because in the badminton games, it was the LOSERS trying to run bad plays

not the WINNERS trying to run out the clock.

[obamanut2012]

10. GOOD

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

17. This seems to be "normal" for badminton tournaments

strategic losing to try to influence who you play next, the players seem to indicate that this is normal. Suddenly, the Badminton Federation decides to try to appear to run a clean tourney, blindsiding some players.

I don't see a big difference between this practice and our own basketball games, where it is considered "strategic" to force fouls during the final few minutes. It turns a sport into an exercise in "gamesmanship".

[KamaAina]

18. Looks like there's a reason it isn't called "goodminton"

[rocktivity]

21. Another one DUzy Candidate!

rocktivity

[Liberal_in_LA]

22. hee!

[may3rd]

24. shuttle cocks

by any other name