Chinese badminton continues its shady ways
Thursday, 23rd June 2011 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Olympic champion and current World No. 2 Lin Dan in front of two characters increasingly associated with his name: 退赛 or "Withdraw from competition."
The latest example took place last weekend at the Li-Ning Singapore Open, where China's Lin Dan, aka "Super Dan," withdrew from the final citing a stomach virus. What good fortune for China's badminton delegation — that stomach virus handed Chen Jin the win by forfeit and his first-place finish will improve his seed for the London 2012 Olympics. Olympic gold medalist Lin was booed by Singapore Indoor Stadium's crowd of more than 7,000, who didn't get the show they paid for.
It's not doing any good for China's reputation in the sports world, which already has the taint of poor sportsmanship from gymasts and footballers who are younger than they say they are, and basketball players who are older. It's not good for badminton, which may never be taken seriously as a sport in the United States, and is losing ground to basketball and football in China. And it can't be good for Li-Ning, the sponsor of the Singapore Open, the Chinese team, and of Lin himself.
The Chinese team are hearing it from the badminton press, who are skeptical that Lin was sick, although they concede that the decision to withdraw probably did not rest with him, but with a coach or team leader. BadZine.com editor-in-chief Raphael Sachetat wrote an insightful editorial on the topic earlier this week (No show: is that promotion?), which includes some great detail and background information on the situation. And something else Sachetat wrote more than two years ago seems to still be relevant in the badminton world: "If only Chinese badminton benefits from its own growth, the sport might simply be taken out of the Olympic program someday. Sponsors will then vanish and the little money coming in will be gone for a while. That's what is called shooting oneself in the foot…" (China out of SS finals: shooting itself in the foot).
While China's "strategy" is an openly criticized secret, it doesn't seem to draw the attention that matters most — that of the Badminton World Federation, which seem unable or unwilling to investigate the behavior for the standard-bearers of its sport.
Tags: badminton, Lin Dan
"Wimbledon of Badminton" underway
Wednesday, 9th March 2011 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Lin Dan gives his signature salute after his signature strip show after taking the Men's Singles title at the 2010 Asian Games.
China is looking to maintain its dominance in the sport, but faces strong challenges from the likes of Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea and Denmark. Hosts England, with just one entrant in each of the singles events, faces an uphill battle to assert itself more strongly as both the next Olympic host and the game's country of origin.
Play begins Wednesday March 9, and runs through Sunday March 13. I haven't checked the TV schedule, but expect plenty of CCTV-5 coverage. The tournament website is here.
Women's Singles
China's Wang Shixian is the favorite after Wang Yihan (China) and Tine Baun (nee Rasmussen, Denmark) withdrew due to injuries. Her toughest opponents will be countrywoman Wang Xin and India's Saina Nehwal, the 2010 Commonwealth Games champion.
Men's Singles
Lin Dan, aka Super Dan, one of Chinese sport's biggest stars, is going for an unprecedented fifth All England title. Other major contenders are defending All England champion, Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia); and reigning world champion Chen Jin (China).
Women's Doubles
To reach the finals, China's third-seeded Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang will likely need to get past the top-seeded Taiwanese pair of Cheng Wen-Hsing and Chien Yu-Chin.
Men's Doubles
This is probably the most wide-open event this year. China's top pair are world title holders Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng, but they are only seeded sixth behind the top-seeded Danish duo of Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen, and teams from Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Mixed Doubles
China has four teams in this event, including top seeds Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei, and the fifth-seeded Tian Qing and Tao Jiaming.
Related: Badzine's All-England Preview
Tags: badminton, Lin Dan, Wang Shixian, Wang Xin, Wang Yihan
Around the Web: Dalian's new sports complex, skateboarding in China and more badminton wins
Tuesday, 7th July 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Move over (empty) Bird's Nest. British architectural firm RMJM won a competition to design a 20,000-square-meter sports complex in Dalian, capital of China's Liaoning province, and renderings of the design look distinctive to say the least. The building, which resembles a giant piece of muscle tissue, is to feature a floor that's suspended off the ground and north-facing skylights. It will house a 50-meter pool, as well as areas for martial arts, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, fencing and gymnastics. It's not RMJM's first China project--it also designed buildings for the Beijing Olympics, including the fencing and shooting venues and the international media center. One of the company's designers, John Pauline, contributed to design of the Water Cube. The Dalian project was the first for RMJM's new studio, RMJM Sport, which also was recently awarded the contract to design six venues for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
China's skateboarding scene
A couple of months after the X Games came to Shanghai, this Global Post article by Jordan Calinoff takes a quick look at the growth of skateboarding's popularity in China.
More wins for Chinese badminton team
China continued to do what it does in badminton over the weekend, winning four out of five finals at the Philippine Open. That's good news for sportswear brand Li-Ning, which earlier this year replaced another Chinese company, 361, as the team's outfitter and major sponsor.
Dalian image: RMJM
Tags: badminton, Dalian, RMJM, skateboarding, sports venues, venues, X Games
Chinese team skipping major badminton tourneys
Saturday, 27th December 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Two weeks after pulling out of the Super Series Masters in Malaysia, the China Badminton Association announced that its players will skip the next two Super Series events in favor of recovering from injuries and attending training camp. China will miss the Malaysian Open, Jan. 6 to 11, and the Korean Open, January 13 to 18.China's absence from the tournaments means that Olympic gold medalists Lin Dan (林丹, men's singles), Zhang Ning (张宁, women's singles), Du Jing and Yu Yang (women's doubles) will not compete.
Tags: Badminton, Du Jing, Lin Dan, Yu Yang, Zhang Ning
Bao Chunlai advances at China Masters
Thursday, 25th September 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Women's doubles and mixed doubles play starts Thursday and the tournament runs through September 28. The tournament is sponsored by Chinese sports apparel brand Li-Ning.
Image: 2008 Li-Ning China Masters
Tags: badminton, Bao Chunlai, Changzhou, Jiangsu
Day Seven: 4 golds, 2 bronzes for China
Saturday, 16th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
China pulled in four gold medals on Friday, along with two bronzes. It was enough to keep China ahead of the United States in the gold medal count, but not enough to eclipse the USA's overall lead.Weightlifting
Cao Lei (women's 75 kg ) and Lu Yong (men's 85 kg) kept the momentum in weightlifting going, winning China's gold medals number seven and eight in the sport.
Du and Yu celebrate badminton gold with their coach
Badminton
China won both gold and bronze in women's badminton doubles. In the gold medal match, Du Jing and Yu Yang beat Lee Kyung-won and Lee Hyo-jung of South Korea (21-15, 21-14). In the bronze medal match, Wei Yili and Zhang Yawen, who had lost to Du and Yu in the semifinals, beat the Japanese duo of Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna (21-17, 21-10).
Judo
Tong Wen took down Maki Tsukada of Japan to claim gold in the women's +78 kg division.
Gymnastics
Yang Yiling took bronze in the women's gymnastics all-around, coming in behind Americans Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson. Yang's best performance was on uneven bars, where she tallied a 16.725, the highest score given in any event of the competition. Her 15.75 on the beam placed her fourth in that discipline, but her scores on the vault (15.175) and the floor routine (15.00) gave her an overall of 62.650, not enough to beat out Johnson's 62.725 for silver.
Image: BOCOG
Tags: badminton, Beijing Olympics, Cao Lei, Du Jing, gymnastics, judo, Lu Yong, Olympics, Tong Wen, Wei Yili, weightlifting, Yang Yiling, Yu Yang, Zhang Yawen
Lin and Xie Survive First-Round Scares in Thailand
Friday, 27th June 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Lin Dan
In the three-game matches, Xie and Lin both took three games to defeat their opponents. Xie, the world's number one women's player, beat unseeded Julia Pei Xian Wong from Malaysia 21-17, 19-21, 21-19. The 55-minute match tied for the longest of the day. Lin, the top male player in the world, needed three games (21-11, 17-21, 21-14) to dispose of unseeded Thai player Vilailak Pakkawat.
The next matches went more smoothly for both of China's singles players. Lin has played twice since, beating Hsieh Yu Hsin of Chinese Taipei (21-18, 21-13) and Kozai Kazuteru of Japan (21-13, 21-12). Xie took out Yuswandari Aprillia of Indonesia, 21-10, 21-12.
The tournament runs through this Sunday.
Image: 98w.com.cn
Tags: badminton, Lin Dan, Xie Xingfang
Badminton World Ranks Released
Saturday, 7th June 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Badminton royalty Xie and Lin
The top Chinese men's doubles team, Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun, are ranked third in the world. The top three women's doubles pairs are all Chinese (Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen; Zhang Yawen and Wei Yili; Du Jing and Yu Yang).
China also has the world's second and third-ranked mixed doubles teams—Zheng Bo and Gao Ling; He Hanbin and Yu Yang.
Judging from the rankings, the strongest teams outside of China are Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia.
(A link to the International Badminton Federation's Web site was not included above because its Google search result comes up with warnings about the page causing problems to your computer. Here is a link to the Google results page.)
Image: Beijing 2008
Tags: badminton, Lin Dan, rankings, Xie Xingfang, Zhang Nin
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