There is a difference between saving yourself for the next match and deliberately trying to lose. The latter is completely unforgivable from a competitive standpoint as it brings the sport into disrepute. The only things I would consider more serious as infractions are betting on your match and doping.
I'm not sure I get the whole situation.
The Chinese pair were throwing the match so they could finish not at the top of their group. This way, they don't have to face the other Chinese team until the Gold medal match.
So the Koreans tried to lose first to make the Chinese play each other earlier. But then both pairs of Koreans started to do this and Indonesia got involved?
Why would the Indonesians want to throw their match against Korea?
And shouldn't the Koreans have protested the match as soon as China started to lose purposefully?
From the article it sounded like many teams approached the organizers before and mentioned this would be a problem.
So remind me why Canada isn't allowed to send two hockey teams to the winter Olympics?
Because each sport's governing body sets the rules, and the IIHF, like most international team-sport bodies, allows for only one entrant per country. Individual sports use different qualification criteria.
Besides, lets face it, if we were to send two hockey teams, neither would medal as neither would be strong enough.
The Chinese pair were throwing the match so they could finish not at the top of their group. This way, they don't have to face the other Chinese team until the Gold medal match.
So the Koreans tried to lose first to make the Chinese play each other earlier. But then both pairs of Koreans started to do this and Indonesia got involved?
Why would the Indonesians want to throw their match against Korea?
And shouldn't the Koreans have protested the match as soon as China started to lose purposefully?
From the article it sounded like many teams approached the organizers before and mentioned this would be a problem.
Yeah, that seems to be a big problem with this decision. They let the first participants get away with it, so the precedent was set for the subsequent matches. Of course the other teams would do what was in their best interest at that point. From what I can tell the organizers blew this from start to finish.
The Chinese pair were throwing the match so they could finish not at the top of their group. This way, they don't have to face the other Chinese team until the Gold medal match.
So the Koreans tried to lose first to make the Chinese play each other earlier. But then both pairs of Koreans started to do this and Indonesia got involved?
Why would the Indonesians want to throw their match against Korea?
And shouldn't the Koreans have protested the match as soon as China started to lose purposefully?
From the article it sounded like many teams approached the organizers before and mentioned this would be a problem.
That's how I read it too. Logically, such a protest would have been the right action. But the odd thing here is that the point of losing was to get an easier match-up. So the governing body set up a goofy situation where losing was preferable to winning. In this scenario, winning properly and winning via disqualification carries worse results than losing does.
that wasn't very sportsmanlike either, but it was far more subtle and probably couldn't have been proven definitively if their own players hadn't been hinting at it. what they did in badminton would have been the equivalent of Sweden "accidentally" scoring on their own net a couple of times. when it gets to that point you're really just wasting the fans time and making your sport look idiotic.
That's how I read it too. Logically, such a protest would have been the right action. But the odd thing here is that the point of losing was to get an easier match-up. So the governing body set up a goofy situation where losing was preferable to winning. In this scenario, winning properly and winning via disqualification carries worse results than losing does.
For those who havn't seen the badminton game here is one of them
That is disgusting. I can understand easing up but that was so blatent. I couldn't imagine spending all that money to get to London and get tickets to an event only to have to watch that pathetic performance. Glad they were DQ.
This type of poor sportsmanship makes it that much harder to trust many of the Asian Olympic teams. The entire Chinese team is often surrounded by controversy and this is just another point against them.
I'm inclined to agree with nfotiu. It would be stupid not to give yourself the best chance to win, which is what these athletes were trying to do. These athletes did not bust their balls to win a seeding match, they did it to win gold.
They didn't do it to win gold, they did it to try avoid playing their own country. The format needs to be fixed, and there are many ways around this, but it is still an absolute disgrace, and to give yourself the best shot at the gold is to try and win your group and face the lowest seeded team possible, your countrymen or not.
More birdies, more nets and a BIG WALL between courts.
That doesn't work in this case. The higher ranked Chinese team could still end up throwing their match in the scenario where the lower ranked Chinese team is playing a weak team in the last match of their group in which a win qualifies the lower ranked Chinese team in the lowest possible qualifying spot. You still end up with a match being thrown.
Some sort of randomization of the final knockout fixtures instead of straight crossover between groups would be ideal if you want a group format.
This type of poor sportsmanship makes it that much harder to trust many of the Asian Olympic teams. The entire Chinese team is often surrounded by controversy and this is just another point against them.
Really?
You don't think any of the NA, SA, European, teams would have done the same thing? They may have been more subtle about it, but it would have been the same result.
You don't think any of the NA, SA, European, teams would have done the same thing? They may have been more subtle about it, but it would have been the same result.
In an individual sport? I wouldn't think so.
Let's use a curling example, for familiarity. Let's say there were 2 curling teams from each country. Do you think Kevin Martin would throw rocks through the house to ensure that he doesn't meet Glenn Howard hoping that both Canada #1 and Canada #2 make the podium? I doubt it, Martin would want to knock Howard out as fast as possible.
I won't say it's an CHINESE thing but it was obviously the wrong thing to do to try and manipulate the competition.
__________________
Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
Of course it's a Chinese thing. This is the country where companies freely rip off anything from cars to bullet trains to fake Apple stores and don't bat an eyelash. You think they wouldn't shamelessly cheat in the Olympics to get ahead?
No country or society is innocent of cheating, but the Chinese take it to a whole other level.
