‘Throwing’ is unsporting
The Badminton World Federation has taken a bold stand against eight Olympic players who made a mockery of the spirit of competition. By indulging in “tanking”, or deliberately losing matches, they brought the sport into disrepute.
To be kicked out of the Olympics is the highest possible shame, which such players richly deserve.
When the modern Olympics’ founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin said the important thing was taking part, not winning, he wouldn’t have envisaged athletes could even think of throwing matches, even if only to further their chances of winning medals. Athletes should not only make their best efforts to win, but also be seen to be doing so.
Such “tanking” puts to severe disadvantage other teams. India, which may have been badly affected by these tactics, lodged a complaint but that was overturned for lack of evidence in replays. The point is that no team should be allowed to choose a shortcut to medals: the federation would have done well to have further removed the least suspicion that players were up to dirty tricks.
There have been concerns about athletes taking recourse to performance-enhancing drugs. While phenomenal improvement in measurable achievements, in timing or distances, will always cause suspicion, it is the duty of the system that detects drugs to keep pace with emerging tactics of “dope” takers, who cynically try to exploit the gaps in detection of cheats. It is an onerous task, and much more must be done, but modern medical tests are helping curb such stealthy practices.
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