I was surprised to see the world-famous Freakonomics blog refer to an article about the Olympic badminton scene. China has been under fire for their tactics in getting their athletes into the Olympics through strategic implementation of the ranking program...and here's a link from FIRSTPOST that talks about this ordeal.
So how DOES China have a huge share in the Olympics badminton pool? They remain the top in the world for the sport, and there's no doubt that they've put in rigorous training programs to make this happen. It's a lot of hard work.
But does it go beyond that?
In the last Badminton Asia Championship, you might remember that Lin Dan forfeited due to injuries. As a result, Chen Jin won the title. Come on, really?
"Chen went on to win the title, which made a considerable contribution to his ranking points."
Oh.
You see, as you might probably know, ranking points are what make your place as an athlete. You become an Olympian if you can join and win enough tournaments to make the cut. This isn't easy-- this makes it difficult for US athletes (among many others) to find tournaments to play in order to gain some points. They usually have to travel around the world, which make it extremely costly--but of course, which sport isn't like this?
As you read FIRSTPOST's article (I highly recommend it), you can see that the Chinese team has carefully mapped out the way to get the most out of their athletes. To simplify it: all the games that they play have been mapped to ensure that the Chinese team has the most players to win medals in all tournaments-- not just for the Olympics.
Should this be legal? Is this breaking any rules? I'm sure the smartest teams are all doing this. But doesn't this ruin the meaning of being a true athlete? What does it mean to be a true athlete, anyways?
Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia has been known for attempting to petition the Chinese tactics, but BWF has been unable to do anything about it.
What should they do? Should they stick to their guns as athletes? Or should it be "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em?"
