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It wasn't just China. 3 teams were doing it and got the ax from the Olympic committee. it involved 8 players from the 3 countries. . China , South Korea and Indonesia. China who had the 1 and 2 seeds is most talked about because it likely caused the lose of the gold and silver medals.
The big problem accurred when twice , two teams attemting to lose played eachother. Apparently both were trying not to win and it became obvious.
Now to me if a single team is doing it you could blame that team but when 3 seperate teams do it , its obviously qa desireable strategy within the existing rules. They were not kicked out do to rules violations. They were kicked out for violating the nebulous "Olympic Spirit" which IMO can be argued differently than winning every match. The Olympic Spirit in these times is to win medals. That's what they were trying to do.
Now if 3 teams are interpreting the rules one way , then the rules are flawed , not the teams and certainly not the individual players.
The cycling thing is IMO 10 times worse. People get hurt often and seriously when a biker falls. Often one falls and takes down several others. The strategy of falling on purpose to force a restart so your team gets a second chance at getting a favorable start is IMO outright cheating.
Just one more reason why the rules need to be simple. In the bike thing , it seenms to me that if you are the one who falls down , you should be out , no restart. If someone else falls and takes you out in the process , then you should get to restart.
In the badminton , keep it simple. You have a single elimination set up. You win you move forward , you lose , you go home. Its done everywhere from little leagues to bar room pool tournies. No incentive to lose that way!
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