International Olympic Committee Calls for Badminton Coach Investigation

The International Olympic Committee says it’s ready to 'draw a line' under the play-to-lose badminton scandal on Thursday. But it has asked national delegations to investigate the coaches involved.

 

IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the eight women disqualified following the match-throwing scandal, including China's top-seeded pair of Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli, were being removed from the athletes village and having their accreditations revoked.

 

[Mark Adams, IOC Spokesperson]:

"Can we draw a line under this? I think probably...as I understand the National Olympic Committees are now making sure that those athletes are leaving the village and on their way home. I would suggest that the matter is closed but that's not for me to say. It's a matter for the Federation first and foremost."

 

He told reporters afterwards that the IOC has asked the national delegations of China, South Korea and Indonesia to investigate the role of their badminton coaches in the scandal.

 

[Mark Adams, IOC Spokesperson]: 

"Obviously we want to see what we would say is a good and positive result for the sport and for the Olympics, and now we're also by the way just making sure at this stage that they consider also the entourage—in this case obviously the coaches—just to make sure it isn't just the athletes who are punished for this."

 

China's head coach, Li Yongbo, has already admitted culpability for his players' losing tactics, which were aimed at putting them into the opposite side of the draw from China's second-ranked doubles pair.

 

That would have prevented them from going head-to-head until the gold medal final.

 

Yu, who won the women's Olympic gold at Beijing with Du Jing, announced her retirement from the sport on her Chinese microblog. She also slammed the Badminton World Federation for shattering her and Wang's "dreams".