Badminton-gate continues. And concludes.

To say that badminton hit the news after last night would probably be an understatement. It seemed to be everywhere: the Internet, the newspapers, the radio, the TV...

Of all of what I heard/ read/ saw, my favourite quote was this:

''A quirk of the draw system meant that winning their group would mean meeting the toughest of opponents in the quarter-finals. Winning would mean losing. So they played like depressed blancmanges''.
- The Independent

Naturally, when I found out that all of the drama was still going down this morning, being the curious Games Maker that I am, I decided to be early to work.

The first news in was that all eight players had been disqualified. All players involved attended a hearing and statements etc. were taken, as well as another ladies doubles match (Japan vs. Chinese Taipei, I think) being put under investigation (this particular match got a not guilty verdict in the end). Indonesia and Korea originally appealed against their respective disqualifications, but then Indonesia withdrew the appeal. Interestingly, China did not appeal and their coach admitted that the players had been told to lose. I heard on the news that one of them is now planning to retire, and it's such a shame for her career to end this way, I suppose.

I went up to the stands to watch Lee Chong Wei's singles before my shift started and, when I walked past the draw again on the way to my shift, I saw that their scores had all been taken off and their ranks within their groups simply said 'DQF'. (The photo will have to follow because I was a slight fail today and left my camera memory card in my laptop, but I promise that other than the memory card exception I am 100% the organised Games Maker).

When I started work it was confirmed that they had all been disqualified, and that, in order to avoid skipping the quarter final stages, the pairs who had finished 3rd and 4th from the groups that the Chinese/ Indonesians/ Koreans had finished 1st and 2nd in, were no longer eliminated from the competition and would play in the quarter finals instead.

I was so glad that the Australians, Canadians, South Africans and Russians got a second chance, and that my (admittedly pretty damning) judgement yesterday of ''the chances of them being thrown out of the competition are very small'' was proven wrong!

Today I mopped for:

V. Sorokina & N. Vislova (Russia) vs. M. Edward & A. Viljoen (South Africa)

K. R. Juhl & C. Pedersen (Denmark) vs. M. Fujii & R. Kakiiwa (Japan)

Q. Tian & YL. Zhao (China) vs. WH. Cheng & TC. Chien (Chinese Taipei)

Although my sweat mopping is obviously without bias, I did really want the Danes to win their doubles, not only because they played in my (mighty) hometown a couple of years ago, but also because they are the only players yet to thank me for mopping up all of their sweat (I know that this is not in any way required of them, but it's a perk if they do). They maintained this record today (along with the minor line-judge traumatisation record), and I got a thank you and a racket-bum-tap from Kamilla 'can you mop here please, and there's some here too, and here, and in the middle please, thank you very much' Rytter Juhl.

Speaking of the quirky badminton racket-bum-tap, I've noticed that it appears to now be making less of an appearance, and seems to be being replaced by the mainstream high-5. My inner badminton-hipster isn't too sure about this.

'Rule 40' (limiting displayed sponsors on kit) has also been getting a fair amount of coverage on the news (though I think the match-fixing debacle did just about win that headline battle)and a lot of the players have had to have various logos 'taped up'. Apparently the Chinese ladies doubles pair went on to court with tape on their knee bandages yesterday and then ripped it off on court, displaying the sponsor. Today, they came on with said knee bandages (complete with tape), but one of them had some form of back support on around her stomach and, during the intervals, she seemed to be lifting her top to reveal this (bright blue) contraption and (presumably) the sponsor on it! It's all going on at the badminton at the moment!

Unfortunately, the night's matches did end on a sad note today, as the Japanese ladies singles player injured her knee and was forced to retire from the match. I was on the court next to it, and I became aware of it when the crowd booed her for not getting up (I guess that they're still slightly cynical after last night's events). She was put in the recovery position, and eventually sat up and was treated but, upon trying to play, she was in tears and could barely walk. She tried to play a couple of points and then asked for her knee to be strapped up, but that cannot be done until 11 or 21 (they had passed 11 and were quite a way off 21). She tried to carry on, but she couldn't put any weight on her leg, and she was sobbing so loudly (which, sadly, the cameras loved). Our match finished and, we were slow enough walking off court to see her coach get up, hug her, and bring her off the court. Her opposition (Tine 'wears extremely, extremely nice dresses even if they don't comply completely with clothing regulations' Baun) also came over and hugged her, and the crowd redeemed themselves by giving them a standing ovation. I then was on my way off court, when we saw one of the Australians in floods of tears after losing her match. I guess that it's inevitable really that stuff like that does happen, but hopefully we'll have happy tears in the future!

On a slightly more awkward-Jenny-story note, when I left the Arena today there were loads of fans waiting at the workforce entrance for some of the players. To say that me walking out was an anti-climax would probably be an understatement!

And, in other news, as of yesterday, my blog has been read on every single continent in the world! Thank you, mopping blog readers!

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!)