Angry Disqualified Chinese Player: Farewell Badminton!

Yu Yang (L) and Wang Xiaoli during their women's double badminton match at the London 2012 Olympic Games, July 31, 2012. Photo by Getty Images

One of the Chinese badminton players disqualified from the Olympics for trying to lose a match has said she is quitting the sport, accusing the badminton governing body of not standing by her.

"This is my last match," Yu Yang wrote on her microblog account late Wednesday. "Farewell Badminton World Federation, farewell my beloved badminton."

Yu, her women's doubles partner, Wang Xiaoli, and six other players were kicked out of the competition on Wednesday by the Badminton World Federation in one of the most controversial episodes of the London Games so far.

The Chinese Olympic delegation "fully respects the Badminton World Federation's decision to punish" its athletes, it said in a statement.

"The actions of Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli on the court have violated Olympic principles and the spirit of fair athletic competition. The Chinese Sports Delegation feels saddened," it said.

The delegation is investigating the Chinese players' conduct, it said, "and will make appropriate rulings based on the result."

The head coach of the Chinese badminton team, Li Yongbo, expressed contrition for what had happened.

"As the head coach, I owe the fans and the Chinese an apology," he said, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua. "Chinese players failed to demonstrate their fighting spirit of the national team. It's me to blame."

The state-run television station CCTV aired footage of Wang and Yu apologizing. But their microblog accounts told a different story.

"I can't believe we fought so hard for four years and the result is this!" Wang wrote. "I tried hard at the match with a body full of injuries."

She said she and her partner had paid the price for the federation's "imperfect game rules."

Bulgarian player Petya Nedelcheva, who had been playing on an adjacent court at the time of the first incident involving the Chinese pair, was forthright in her general criticism of China.

"If it is China again, they did it so many times last year, they didn't play against each other in 20 matches. They do what they want," she said, as cited by the Telegraph.

Nedelcheva's comments are supported by figures compiled by online magazine Badzine earlier this year showing that of the 99 all-Chinese matches played in major tournaments in 2011, 20 were walkovers.

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