Scandal at mopping HQ...

I went in to work a couple of hours early today because all of the Great British players were scheduled to play during the afternoon session, so I figured that I could see them all if I got out of bed fast enough. Contrary to previous performances, I was actually successful in
the whole getting out of bed malarkey!

The seating that is allocated to 'technical officials' (yes, floor mopping is apparently 'technical', do not laugh) is shared with the players and coaches, so there was ginger-old-me rocking it up in spotty leggings (we can't really wear uniform off-duty), surrounded by various international tracksuits... I had a pass, though, so at least I looked slightly less gatecrasher and slightly more standardised!

Susan Egelstaff lost very closely (she played really, really well) and, shortly after the match, Team GB came up and sat in front of me. Meaning that, at one point, I had Peter Gade and GB in front of me, China and Indonesia behind, Spain next to me, Simon Archer to my left and Gail Emms in the commentary box at the top of the stand. At this point I was obviously loving life.

Raj lost as well in a three set match, which was gutting because he was so close to winning, and then Chris and Imo followed it with another GB loss. They didn't look totally at ease before the match and, when someone told them 'good luck', their response was something along the lines of them having to play for the crowd and not for themselves, so I suspect that the pressure of the home crowd may have got to them just a little bit too much. It's such a shame that they couldn't seem to get into the matches enough to follow up their success of the London World Championships here at the Olympics, but I guess that they are still young enough to potentially have another shot in Rio.

After the session ended, and after a fair few comments on how different I look out of uniform (i.e. out of a T-Shirt the same colour as my hair...), I did a quick-change into uniform in the luxury (I joke) of the athlete's toilets and made my way up for tea before heading to our lounge. Today was another freebies day upon checking in, and I now have 2 pin badges! Although the GB one remains my firm favourite (sorry, McDonalds).

Today I mopped for:

J.Jorgensen (Denmark). vs. D. Wong (Indonesia)
C. Xu & J. Ma (China) vs. HL. Chen & WH Cheng (Chinese Taipei)
I also mopped for another match but, due to the pandemonium going on around me, I have no idea what it was anymore (although I promise that I was paying full attention at the time)!


I went onto court for my first match and had sat for less than 11 points when thunderous (this is not an exaggeration) boos began to erupt from the audience. At this point I thought that it was one team's fans booing the opposition, but as it continued point, after point, after point, I realised that there was something else going on. Only to sneakily watch some of the play on that court (luckily it was in front of me, so I could do this without the awkward turn-around-in-chair, which normally ends up on TV), to discover that each pair in the ladies doubles were serving into the net and hitting shots that were about a metre out of the court into the net, just to ensure that the other team got the points. Put bluntly: both teams (China and Korea, just to name and shame) were trying to lose.

The tournament referee and coaches argue...

We came off court to find out that they were doing this to try to get into the better half of the draw. Unfortunately, despite the booing, China were successful in doing this and, somehow, the world number ones lost to something like 7 points. Totally realistic. Not...
And, surprise, surprise, China will now not meet China until the final...


We went on for our next match joking about what to do if it happened again (walking off court was very seriously considered), only to get on court and, towards the end of the match, to hear the same thing happening again, this time between the Indonesian and Korean women's doubles pairings who were on court behind us.

And the tournament referee joins the umpire and players on court

They reached about 4-4 before the tournament referee was called on to the court, the coaches and the players were all warned, they did the same again, the referee came on again
and then the players played properly up to 11, before messing around again. At this point the match that I had been on had finished and I was back in the NTO's lounge, where their 'match' was on TV. These players were literally just hitting clear after clear (presumably because it looked at least slightly as if they were playing) and then one of them would either pretend to misjudge a line (leaving the shuttle to fall in to give the other team the point), or they would drop shot the shuttle (very deliberately) into the net.  It was such a shame, because people had paid for tickets and were watching pairs in the top 10 in the world playing at a standard that your average person could recreate in a church hall. The referee came on again and gave both pairings black cards (i.e. disqualified them), only to withdraw the cards and make play continue. Obviously, the same thing happened again, and it continued to happen even after the referee broke through the arguing coaches and went and stood next to the court to force them to 'play'.

They were nice enough to smile for my camera
on their way out...

In the end, the Indonesians were bad enough to lose. They were (probably deservedly) booed off court, and refused to give press interviews, storming off into the back of house.
It was completely against the whole concept of the 'Olympic Spirit' and such a shame that they didn't just go out there and play properly, because the games would have been really good!
Sadly, if all four pairs are not disqualified, it will probably be one of them who wins. And, really, there is no way (despite it being so obvious) to prove that they weren't trying, so the chances of them being thrown out of the competition are probably very small.

The contrast of situations was horrific as well: Susan Egelstaff broke down into tears when she came and sat down after her match because she was so gutted to lose, and yet these eight players sadly went out there with seemingly no aim whatsoever to even put up a fight (or pretend to). Hopefully someone, somewhere has learnt a lesson so that this doesn't have to happen again. (Gail Emms, get on the case please).

I (luckily) don't have to pay to see these matches, but to anyone who had tickets to today's badminton and expected to see true Olympians, I apologise that you had to sit through all of that.

                                           Hiss, boo.



Olympic spot of the day: Anthony Clark doing the commentary for the spectator's headsets.

(Seb 'in my mum's class at school' Coe also payed us a visit today for the England matches. Luckily he missed all of the drama of this evening!)