When the Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced yesterday it was disqualifying four teams from the women's doubles competition for trying to lose, including the world's top team, China's Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang, I have to admit my first reaction was fear that this would create more controversy than it would resolve. (Here are match "highlights.") Would the conversation turn into a cultural discussion ab ...

Courtesy of Sina, here's actual Olympic footage! UPDATE, 12:06 pm: They've disabled the embed. But you can watch on Sina's website if you're within the mainland. The players in the above have, as reported, been disqualified from the tournament. The Indonesian team withdrew its appeal, and the two South Korean teams' appeals were rejected, according to AP. The competition was to continue later Wednesday with ...

[caption id="attachment_4367" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters"][/caption] If you're not up to speed on badminton's big scandal, first go read this. And then realize that the IOC and Badminton World Federation just dropped the biggest bombshell of these Games by disqualifying four pairs of teams from the quarterfinals for match-fixing, including two teams -- both South Korean ( ...

Let's start with the format: the Olympic women's doubles badminton tournament begins with pool play with four groups of four teams, with the top two teams in each group moving on to the quarterfinals. The matchups in the quarters are predetermined: teams from Groups A and C crossover (1st-place team from A plays 2nd-place team from C, and vice versa), while Group B and D teams crossover. It's a standard for ...

By Andray Abrahamian There was something approaching unabashed joy at Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony for London 2012. Partly because it was a creative way to render the best of Britain on stage, partly because the soundtrack was great, but mostly because it stood up to the incredible spectacle of Beijing. After the handover at the closing ceremony in 2008, which featured David Beckham kicking a football and ...

A Ye Shiwen ad on CCTV-5 preceded the race. Coming off the block in the fourth lane, she appeared to emerge from the water and break into the butterfly too early, but she was still in first place coming off the turn. She was barely in first after the backstroke, but slipped to third after the backstroke. It was quickly apparently, at the beginning of this final 50 meters, that she was going to win. We said ...

You don't need to know Chinese to appreciate this video (though the subtitles by chnnewsengsub are appreciated). Wu Jingbiao, the two-time reigning World Weightlifting Championships gold-medalist, was the favorite to win on Sunday, and would have if not for North Korean Om Yun Chol's perfect day. In his post-lift interview, Wu was inconsolable. “I feel terribly guilty for disappointing my country, the Chine ...

While we all await Ye Shiwen's next race -- she's the top qualifier (and Olympic record-holder) in the 200-meter individual medley, which begins at 8:43 pm London time / 3:43 am Beijing time -- you might be interested to know that women's gymnastics is on right now. Other Olympics stuff happened too, as you'll see if you read on. ...

We're at the point where Ye Shiwen can no longer be found guilty in China, if that makes sense. This issue has become about more than swimming. If it ever does come to light that Ye used a banned substance, I suspect the relevant organs will find a scapegoat who admits that he accidentally put an illegal substance in her food or something, and no one -- not the media, the Chinese swim officials, the million ...

UPDATE, 6:19 pm: The Ku6 video has been pulled, but you can watch the full race on Sina here if you're within mainland China (they don't allow embedding). All eyes will be on Ye Shiwen tonight (8:43 pm London, 3:43 am Beijing) when she competes in the 200-meter individual medley (she set an Olympic record in her preliminary heat). If she's anywhere close to the lead in the final turn, the competition is, as ...

[caption id="attachment_4328" align="alignnone" width="490" caption="John Leonard and Ye Shiwen"][/caption] Ye Shiwen, the 16-year-old swimmer who set a new world record on Saturday in the 400-meter individual medley, has been accused of cheating. The Guardian's Andy Bull, who on Sunday published a very interesting and insightful account of Ye's swim and the reactions to it and her teammates ("Over the cour ...

[caption id="attachment_4323" align="alignnone" width="360" caption="Chris O'Meara / AP"][/caption] China women's volleyball's sweet midnight-blue uniforms. The excitement continues. Here are some of the more noteworthy stories from the Olympics. ...

The refs plain botched this. Chinese commentators during the game -- one of whom was Yao Ming -- speculated that maybe none of the three refs on the court -- all of them staring at the play -- could believe Serge Ibaka could actually do this -- jump, bounce the ball, come down with it, then shoot -- and were too stunned to blow the whistle. In any case, play went on, everyone continued to remain shocked, an ...

You may think this an ordinary llama wearing heart-shaped sunglasses, but that's where you'd be wrong. This is a llama that loves Liu Xiang, the hurdler. Also, it's wearing heart-shaped sunglasses, but we may have already mentioned that. As brought to our attention by Alicia, this llama isn't at all afraid to show its Olympic allegiances: ...

[caption id="attachment_4302" align="alignnone" width="490" caption="Lars Baron / Getty Images"][/caption] Aside from the men's gymnastics team losing pommel horse gold medalist Teng Haibin to injury, China's Olympics are going just swell. Some highlights: ...

While it seems unlikely that Paul McCartney, 70, would ever fail to remember the words to one of his most well-known songs, why take the risk when you're live with two billion viewers? But some lyrics, when flashed upon a small screen intended for one and broadcast to two billion, are funnier than others. BJC reader Andray Abrahamian noticed this on Euro Sport's stream of Friday's opening ceremony and sent ...

Take note, Park Tae Hwan: this is how you congratulate someone for becoming his country's first Olympic gold-medal winner in a sport. Park, of course, said yesterday after Sun Yang's Olympic record-setting win in the 400-meter freestyle: “I lost the race, but I am glad that it was an Asian who won. It is something we can all be proud of.” No need to bring race into it, as international basketball superstar ...

Sun Yang made history last night by becoming the first Chinese man to win an Olympic swimming event, beating defending champion (and favorite) Park Tae Hwan of South Korea in the 400-meter freestyle and setting a new Olympic record of 3:40:14 (video here). After the race, he straddled a lane buoy and let out a primal scream as the CCTV announcer called him a "Chinese manly man." The win was nearly marred wi ...

NBC Universal is fascist when it comes to Olympics content -- my old YouTube got deleted for posting too many videos from live events in 2008 -- so you're in North America, you're on your own for moving pictures. For those in China, enjoy London's cauldron-lighting: 200-plus copper petals on fire, rising. Also, Boris Johnson did a pretty awesome thing. Opposing Views explains: ...

OOPS! Via Daily Mail: "North Korea's women footballers walked off in protest before their match with Colombia yesterday when the flag of bitter rivals South Korea was mistakenly shown on the big screen in Scotland's Hampden Park." Manchester City just beat the incredibly popular-in-China Arsenal 2-0 in heavy rain at the Bird's Nest today. The Olympics opening ceremony begins in a matter of hours, at 4 am Ch ...