The fallout from the badminton controversy that marred the London Olympics Wednesday began with one of the disqualified Chinese player deciding to quit the game. Chinese authorities have also demanded a public apology from their players.
Yu Yang, who with teammate Wang Xiaoli was part of the incident to "throw" their matches in order to avoid facing their compatriots before the final, announced her retirement, a few hours after her disqualification. "This is my last competition. Goodbye Badminton World Federation, goodbye my beloved badminton," the 26-year-old wrote on the country's Weibo micro-blogging service.
Her dreams had been "heartlessly shattered" she wrote in another post.
Yu's partner Wang also posted on Weibo, blaming the tournament format for the circumstances that led to the disqualification. "What you've cancelled is not just a game, but my dream!" she said.
Two pairs from South Korea and one from Indonesia were also sent home after a series of obvious errors in their matches.
The messages by the disgraced duo were published shortly after the State's news agency Xinhua announced that the Chinese officials had ordered the players and the head of the country's Olympic badminton team to tender a public apology.
"The (Chinese) delegation has already severely criticised and educated the responsible badminton leaders, team and relevant players and demanded they profoundly recognise the seriousness and the harmfulness of this matter, reflect deeply on it, publicly apologize and resolutely prevent such incidents from happening again," Xinhua quoted an unnamed spokesperson as saying.
China's chief badminton coach said the tournament format, was in part to blame for the controversy, but admitted there was no excuse for their actions. "The key point is we did not behave professionally as athletes and did not treat each match seriously," he told Xinhua.
"We didn't strive with all our might in the Olympic way ... As chief coach I really feel I must say sorry to fans and viewers nationwide."
The Badminton World Federation (BWF), which meted out the ban, also apologized. "We are very, very sorry that this has happened, both for the players and for the sport," said Thomas Lund, chief executive of the BWF.
