Four Badminton Teams Were Disqualified . . . For Trying to Lose on Purpose

A lot of Americans think badminton is a pretty lame Olympic sport. And THIS isn’t going to change their minds.

Badminton has a preliminary round . . . like basketball . . . to decide which teams go to the medal round. It also determines the seedings for the medal round.

But by their last preliminary match on Tuesday, four women’s doubles teams had already clinched a spot in the medal round: Two from South Korea, one from Indonesia, and the defending world champions from China.

And they all figured that they’d face an easier opponent to open the medal round if they LOST their last preliminary match.

So, all four teams went out and tried to LOSE on purpose. They hit serves into the net, and generally made no effort to win. Even worse, two of the teams were playing EACH OTHER . . . which resulted in an incredibly lame match.

And the fans in the arena figured it out. They started booing and demanded a refund.

Yesterday, Olympic officials sent all four teams HOME.

The disqualified teams were Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang of China . . . the current world champions . . . Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari of Indonesia, Jung Kyung Eun and Kim Ha Na of South Korea, and Ha Jung Eun and Kim Min Jung of South Korea.

The Chinese Olympic delegation said it “fully respects” the decision to punish its two players and said it would carry out its own investigation. The South Koreans and Indonesians are appealing the decision.

(NY Times)

(–Here’s some video of the teams’ performance. They hit serves directly into the net at :45, and the judges give them a warning at 1:09)