What the hell did we watch? Why didn't someone help Liu Xiang up? Why was he left hopping around on one foot like an inspirational failure?
Liu Xiang was in the sixth heat of the preliminaries in the 110-meter hurdles, and on his first leap his left foot collided with the hurdle, sending him down. He landed awkwardly, tumbled and tumbled, and the CCTV commentators emitted a scream and then went speechless for the next five seconds.
Was a note proving injury all that was required to get the world’s No. 1 badminton team of Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli reinstated after their high-profile disqualification for match-fixing (and the DQs of three other teams)? I’ve emailed Thomas Lund, t.lund@bwfbadminton.org, and the Badminton World Federation (BWF) to find out, and will report back if... Read more »
China’s Lin Dan beat Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei 15-21, 21-10, 21-19 earlier today, becoming the first person to repeat as Olympic men’s badminton champion (he also beat Lee in the 2008 finals). That in itself could establish him as the best male badminton player of all time, but then you consider his 48 career titles, including four... Read more »
Internationally famous Chinese man Yao Ming has been color-commentating the men’s basketball games on CCTV, but as has always been his case, he’s too intelligent and opinionated to be boxed in by his sport. Very recently, as reported by Reuters, he spoke on the record with Xinhua about the badminton and Ye Shiwen controversies: “(The) same... Read more »
Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli were disqualified for match-fixing because they wanted to avoid facing Tian Qian and Zhao Yunlei in the semifinals, and now we know why. Tian and Zhao just won the gold medal, never dropping a set in any of their three knock-out round matches. They beat Japan’s Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa 21-10 25-23.... Read more »
Australia beat Brazil 70-66 yesterday to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals, but all anyone is talking about is Liz Cambage's dunk, which people are agreeing is the first-ever in women's basketball in the Olympics.
Via Facebook: “Gabrielle Douglas, the first African American woman to win the all-around gold medal in gymnastics, celebrating with Liang Chow, her Chinese-born coach.” (H/T Disgrasian)
The Guardian continues to win its coverage of the Olympics. You might remember they were right on top of the Ye Shiwen story, and what can you say about their Lego reenactments of Olympic moments except bravo, good sirs.
Yu Yang’s retirement announcement Hold the phones, everyone. This story isn’t as straightforward as we thought, and it doesn’t seem like Yu Yang completely agrees with the Badminton World Federation’s decision to disqualify her and teammate Wang Xiaoli for match fixing. (Also, she announced her retirement on Tencent Weibo, but we’ll get to that in a... Read more »
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.”)... Read more »
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