The Badminton Controversy at the 2012 Summer Olympics

The Badminton Controversy at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Around 10:30am on July 31, a huge upset happened in badminton women's doubles. The team of Pedersen and Juhl from Denmark upset the gold medal favorites Tian and Zhao from China. As a result of this match, Pedersen and Juhl ended up winning Group D while Tian and Zhao were knocked into second place. Both teams still advanced to the quarterfinals.

The bracket of women's badminton looked like this:

A1 vs. C2
B1 vs. D2
A2 vs. C1
B2 vs. D1

By early evening on July 31, the results of Group B were set as well, and the bracket looked as follows:

A1 vs. C2
Cheng/Chien (TPE) vs. Tian/Zhao (CHN)
A2 vs. C1
Fujii/Kakiiwa (JPN) vs. Pedersen/Juhl (DEN)

At 7:07pm, the last match of Group A started between Wang & Yu of China and Jung & Kim HN of South Korea. Both teams were guaranteed to advance from the group, the only question was which team was A1 and which was A2. Wang & Yu didn't want to be on the same side of the bracket as their compatriots, the whole plan was for the two Chinese teams to meet in the gold medal match. And so they tried to lose their match so they would end up on the opposite side of the bracket. Jung & Kim HN also tried to lose, as the bottom half of the bracket was the much easier side due to not having the powerhouse team of Tian & Zhao. The two teams ended up playing a match featuring no rallies of more than four shots. In the end, Wang & Yu proved to be better at losing and achieved their objective.

After that match, the bracket looked as follows:

Jung/Kim HN (KOR) vs. C2
Cheng/Chien (TPE) vs. Tian/Zhao (CHN)
Wang/Yu (CHN) vs. C1
Fujii/Kakiiwa (JPN) vs. Pedersen/Juhl (DEN)

At 8:19pm, well before any decision could be made regarding the play in the last Group A match, the final match in Group C began between Jauhari & Polii of Indonesia and Ha & Kim MJ of Korea. As with Group A, both teams had already clinched spots in the quarterfinals. This time, winning the group meant facing Wang & Yu in the quarterfinals, and if you lose in the quarterfinals you won't get any medal. On the other hand, getting second in the group gets you an easier quarterfinals match. Sure the team would probably then lose to Tian & Zhao in the semis, but losing in the semis means you still get a shot at bronze. So once again, both teams tried to lose, committing dozens of unforced errors---way too many for teams of their caliber. The Indonesians proved better at committing errors and succeeded in avoiding the Chinese in the quarterfinals.

The next day, the Badminton World Federation reviewed the situation and found all four teams advancing out of Groups A and C guilty of "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport". They were all disqualified and replaced by the teams that finished bottom in their respective groups.

So remember kids: Winners don't use drugs.