Badminton: Olympic Disgrace

Eight shuttlers have been disqualified from the women's doubles competition for being accused of

not using one's best efforts to win...conducting oneself in a manner clearly abusive and detrimental to the sport

Thank goodness! We don't want cheats in any game who bring disrepute to their sport and the spirit of the Olympiad.

Sports persons should always do their best in whichever event they participate in and not try to under perform or deliberately to lose in order to gain an advantage in later rounds.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) have to largely shoulder the blame for failing to take any action when they had opportunity to in the past.

The Chinese badminton players had been notorious in throwing a game or two to allow a compatriot a certain advantage.

There is no need to mention who always seemed to be either sick or not feeling up to the weather whenever it was convenient for the player to do so in order to give a walkover or to allow a fellow compatriot to win or go through the next round

But what had the BWF been doing when those things happened?

Now that the charade happened at the Olympics, perhaps the BWF had no choice but to act.

What a disgrace!

UPDATE: Indonesia's gentleman shuttler, Taufik Hidayat, called the whole charade a "circus". He was quoted by AFP to have said

It happens a lot. I hope players can learn from it. It's not sport. It's like in women's doubles, China have never lost to Korea. It's like a movie..For the IOC (International Olympic Committee) it's very bad.. I prefer for them to be disqualified because it affects the reputation of badminton. I hope it doesn't happen again in future as it is an embarrassment for our country and I want the best for our country

While China's Lin Dan, of all people, blamed the organisers for setting up a schedule that opened the door to match manipulation. What a sick joke for the Chinese ace to say so!

Lin Dan was quoted by AFP to have said

It's not their (the players's) fault. Whenever they set the rules they should take that situation into consideration. I don't understand why there is a group situation (rather than a straight knockout)

Neither do I understand why players should nevertheless disgrace themselves just because they can manipulate a match, you blockhead! Aren't you fellows there in the true spirit of sportsmen and women?