The Korean women’s doubles players who were disqualified from the Olympic Games last summer and subsequently suspended from the Korean National Badminton Team have had their sentences commuted, clearing the way for them to return to the national team and to compete internationally. Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that the decision was handed down at the January 24th meeting of the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC).
The Badminton Korea Association (BKA) had originally imposed very strong punishment on Kim Min Jung, Ha Jung Eun, Kim Ha Na, and Jung Kyung Eun, as well as their coaches, after the four players were disqualified by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) for intentionally trying to lose their last round-robin matches at the London Olympics. The Koreans appealed to the BKA once and had the sentences reduced to a one-year suspension from the national team and a 6-month ban on competing nationally or internationally but were later allowed by the KOC to compete domestically, while their eligibility to play for the national team was still withheld. Kim Ha Na and Jung Kyung Eun have actually been training with the national team since December, when the BKA petitioned the KOC to lift the suspension, and the two competed in the Korea Open Superseries Premier earlier this month, nominally representing their respective corporate teams.
Ha Jung Eun has not competed even domestically since the Olympics and Kim Min Jung, too, has hinted that she will not be returning to international competition. Originally, it was Yu Yang who had claimed to be retiring, making that announcement while the Olympics were still on; however, the Chinese were the first of the four disqualified pairs to return to international competition and no additional punishment from Chinese authorities has been made public. The two Indonesians were initially given a suspension by their national association but it was lifted soon afterward and the players returned to international competition in November.
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It is disappointing to learn that Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung do not wish to play anymore in international competition. Please reconsider your decision. The badminton fans around the world are waiting eagerly to see them in action again. As both of you are still young, you have many more good years of badminton in you.
Do not allow the London Olympics to trouble you. Forget about the past, it is the present and future that really matter. Furthermore, it was not entirely the fault of the players. The rules of the game allowed it. These rules are to be reviewed at the Rio Olympics. Admittedly there is a flaw in the system. We are all humans; as such we do err at times. Please do not be too glum.
Believe me cheer up and you will do well in the coming Rio Olympics
Yes, it was naive of the BWF to think badminton athletes were playing for their sport. With honour and respect, and to promote their sport. What a shock for them (and the fans) 4 teams thought about this differently. The OG are a “once” or maybe “twice” in a career. Those who have compete in more OG’s are few. How on earth could somebody do what they did in front of the camera’s, audience, commentators, …, in the OG ? People payed to watch those games ! I have not one single peace of sympathy for those 8. Regardless their nationality, ranking, … When it was up to me to take the decision, they were banned from the OG’s for life. Period. How can you ever make rules that cover everything ? There’s also “common sense”, and respect. Look at cycling, no matter how hard everybody tries, they will never succeed making a list with all forbidden product on it. There will always be somebody who finds a new product to cheat, that is not on that list. Only those who play fair, and have respect for their sport will say “I won’t do that, no matter what”. Those are the athletes who deserve my outer respect. No doubt there were other players/teams who would have love to play on those OG’s. Players who would not have thrown games. They deserved that chance.